Within a very dynamic industry caused mainly by data traffic growth and adjacent smart-technology evolution supporting the content, the telecom network operators are continuously exploring the ecosystem for new opportunities to create profitability and satisfaction for the stakeholders involved in the telecommunications’ value chain. In this sense, certain areas of the world have outperformed others in regional terms of operators’ performance due to several factors such as market conditions, regulations and technology evolution, which influenced the sustainability of the business strategies.
Given this context, the European market and its telecom players, seems to have entered into a pronounced sensitive situation with larger data traffic growth and demands determined by technological changes and a disloyal competition which benefits from the market conditions. The escape solutions did not, however, ceased to exist and they may paradoxically come especially from the causes that created the challenging landscape.
Accordingly, the paper attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing challenges and opportunities for the European network operators, with the final purpose of proposing a set of inter-related solutions to tackle the most challenging factors of pressure, while absorbing most of the new business environment. To a certain extent, the outcome of the analysis that includes a major case study, can be considered as a reflection on the European network operators’ position in front of the new challenging landscape that integrates emerging tendencies and new business models needs, as well as an understanding over the new opportunities that could consolidate the position on the market.
Finally, the paper will end with discussions based on the analysis findings, conclusions aligned with the formulated problem, and future research recommendations.