Research firm, Ovum forecasts telecom IT spending to reach $60 billion in 2017, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.6 per cent between 2013 and 2017. The growth in the telecom IT spending will be driven primarily by investments in packaged software and system integration.
Over the next few years, the global IT spending in telecom industry will be driven by major investments in emerging markets such as Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America. Meanwhile, in North America, telecom IT spending is expected to grow at a CAGR of 0.8 per cent to reach $17.5 billion by 2017.
Ovum expects that the operators are likely to reduce internal IT spending and increase spending on external IT projects. With an aim to lower costs, a large number of players will outsource their IT requirements to technology vendors. Service providers will also explore the option of implementing unified and standards-based systems and software and adopt analytics tools.
