Telecom wholesalers failing to deliver

Wholesale telecoms suppliers are failing to deliver high-quality products and services to their customers and, as a result, are ill-equipped to deal with intense market competition.

That’s the message from a new Ovum report, Wholesale Customer Survey 2011.

According to the report, the performance of wholesale suppliers is deteriorating in many of the areas that are most important to customers and improving in the areas they care about the least.

“Wholesalers need to listen to their customers and this has never been more important than it is now,” said David James, Ovum Principal Analyst and author of the report.

“The economic crisis, combined with fierce competition, has forced wholesale prices down. But in spite of the tough environment for wholesalers, their customers report that there are expanding gaps between what they expect from their suppliers and what is being delivered to them,” James said.

For example, “Wholesalers are also getting it wrong by offering too wide a wide range of products. A clear conclusion from our survey is that customers want specialist suppliers with in-depth offerings, not generalists with broad portfolios,” James said.

Also, mid-sized customers are unhappy with the shrinking gap between wholesale prices and what they can charge in the retail market, which reduces their potential profit margins.