UK Telecommunications Research Articles

An initial survey on the use of costs of quality programmes in telecommunications

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the results of an initial survey on the implementation of costs of quality (CoQ) programmes in the UK telecommunications industry and to discuss the findings in the context of sustainable competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachA postal survey was employed in order to investigate the breadth of use of CoQ programmes in the sector. A questionnaire was developed and distributed across a sample of companies with a UK SIC code of “6400 Telecommunications”.FindingsThe survey results revealed little interest in implementing such programmes in the sector. The most frequently cited reasons were: having a costing system that is already capable of monitoring quality costs; and not yet introduced to the concept of CoQ.Research limitations/implicationsThe results presented are limited by two factors: the low response rate; and the range of data gathered. Since the majority of the respondents were service providers, the results could be indicative of this type of company only.Practical implicationsThe survey findings indicate that training and education in quality management should employ a more focused approach to the introduction of the concept of CoQ tracking.Originality/valueTo the knowledge of the authors the study presented is the first investigation performed to determine the breadth of use of CoQ programmes across the UK telecommunications sector. In addition, a new aspect of researching the capabilities of information systems in processing CoQ data has been identified.

Valuing technology along a timeline of technological maturity

The issue of assessing technology for business application remains a foremost concern for managers in industry. Many managers know that there is something unsatisfactory about the standard use of Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) techniques, particularly when there is high uncertainty and a need for strategic flexibility. However, whatever the lack of hard data, it is also unsettling to rely on pure 'gut feel'. It is proposed that a time-based view of valuation, built on technological maturity concepts, can assist in the assessment of technology development projects. The paper draws on interviews in UK telecommunications, aerospace and pharmaceutical companies.

Success criteria for systems led transformation

PurposeOrganisational transformation has been a major research theme over the last few decades. The main emphasis focuses on how successful organisations are using information systems and technology (IS/IT) to transform business operations. This paper aims to summarize and evaluate the key perspectives and concepts of change management. These perspectives and concepts are used to conduct an overview of the transformation of a major UK telecommunications company is using IS as a driver.Design/methodology/approachThis paper focuses on trying to understand the whole range of systems‐related problems that may confront an organisation during the introduction of new operational systems as part of organisational change and transformation. The primary objective is to identify best practice. A case study focusing on a large organisation is the approach used to try and elicit learning.FindingsThe view emerging from the case study is that there are generic problems that need to be addressed especially related to how system changes, processes and the customer are managed. Even with an increasing caseload of examples where large firms are unsuccessfully with major organisational transformations‐companies are still willing to undergo this risky change process.Research limitations/implicationsIt is intended that this best practice framework will be used in other organisational environments.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to widening studies on systems introduction as part of organisational change.

Applying online fleet driver assessment to help identify, target and reduce occupational road safety risks

Many studies have shown that driver attitude and behaviour are important determinants of the likelihood of collision involvement. Knowledge of the Rules of the Road and the perception of hazards are also associated with collision involvement. The aim of this paper is to review the practical application of an online fleet driver assessment program to help identify, target and reduce occupational road safety risks. A large and unique data set collected from online assessment of drivers employed in a UK telecommunications organisation is analyzed. Data was also collected on driver demographics and their driving and collision history. Analysis of the data revealed that attitude, behaviour, knowledge and hazard perception are highly correlated with self-reported collisions. The influence of these variables on collision involvement was assessed using a Poisson regression model. Both attitude and behaviour scores exhibit a statistically significant association with collision involvement, along with other variables such as mileage driven, driver age and personality. The findings lend support to the need to create a safety culture in which driver assessment and improvement is the norm, as well as reducing exposure to risk wherever possible through better ways of working and travelling.

Intra-Preneurship and Enrolment: Building Networks of Ideas

In this paper we draw on and develop an actor-network perspective on organizational entrepreneurship—the study of enterprising behaviour within the firm. Based on the findings of an in-depth study of management consultants in a UK telecommunications firm, we argue that ideas do not flourish because they are inherently more `enterprising' or `innovative' than others, but rather because of the success (or otherwise) of the process of `enrolment'. Our study shows that the consultants were not `intermediaries without discretion', tasked with the diffusion of an already-established template. Rather, they acted as mediators by actively seeking to construct and maintain a network around their idea. By revealing the political tactics and power plays involved in this enrolment process, our study contributes to the actor-network literature by highlighting the link to organizational power and politics. The study also contributes by drawing attention to the subjectivity of network-builders—an issue often left under-explored in actor-network studies. We illuminate the identity processes involved in organizational entrepreneurship, including the link to systems of organizational control. This was fuelled by a mixture of anxiety, insecurity and the desire to be recognized as an `intra-preneur'.

Contested resources: unions, employers and the adoption of new work practices in US and UK telecommunications

The pattern of adoption of high-performance work practices has been explained in terms of strategic contingency and in terms of union presence. We compare the post-deregulation/privatization changes in work practice at AT&T, Bell Atlantic and British Telecom. On the basis of these cases, we argue that the choice of new work practices should be understood as a consequence not only of the company's resources or changes in its environment, nor of a simple union presence, but also as a consequence of the practices' effects on union power, the nature of the union's engagement, and the union's strategic choices.

Applying Union Mobilization Theory to Explain Gendered Collective Grievances: Two UK Case Studies

This article draws on Kelly's mobilization theory to identify potential stages in developing gendered collective articulation of grievances and discusses the barriers to such articulation within two case sites in the UK telecommunications sector. It focuses on employee concerns surrounding pay and working time issues arising from organizational change in two case studies from the UK telecommunications sector. Findings showed that organizational change had brought work intensification that exacerbated long hours cultures and that concerns were common to both sexes, although organizational variations in career ambitions and sense of entitlement occurred. In contrast, there was evidence that women were less willing to articulate concerns over unfair pay practices, shaped partly by a low sense of entitlement and also perceived weaknesses in potential for collective redress. The activation of grievances was severely limited by the gendered occupational and organizational structure of both workplaces and union organization within them. We conclude that there are opportunities for unions to pursue a two-pronged approach to worker mobilization by mainstreaming concerns about working time that are common to workers of both sexes with families and to activate gendered concerns around pay at workplace level.

Contested Resources: Unions, Employers, and the Adoption of New Work Practices in US and UK Telecommunications

AbstractThe pattern of adoption of high‐performance work practices has been explained in terms of strategic contingency and in terms of union presence. We compare the post‐deregulation/privatization changes in work practice at AT&T, Bell Atlantic and British Telecom. On the basis of these cases, we argue that the choice of new work practices should be understood as a consequence not only of the company's resources or changes in its environment, nor of a simple union presence, but also as a consequence of the practices' effects on union power, the nature of the union's engagement, and the union's strategic choices.

Understanding strategising in the telecommunications industry: lessons for global telecoms firms

This study considers the key determinants of environmental change and its associated consequences on strategic decision-making and strategising at the UK incumbent BT (British Telecommunications Plc),1 since UK telecommunications privatisation in 1984. With this in mind, the issue of strategising has become an important theme in the strategic management literature but is an under-researched area, particularly within the telecommunications sector. A case study approach was adopted, with face-to-face interviews carried out with senior executives. Semi-structured questionnaire checklists were used and content analysis was applied to the data set. Results alluded to the nature of both strategic evolution and the processes involved in strategising occurring at the incumbent telecoms provider, through the presentation and analysis of empirical data that has been unexplored – until now. Findings further our understanding of corporate level managerial decision-making, which will be of interest to both academics and practitioners.

Just Enough: Empowering Fixed-Line Telecommunications Consumers Through a Quality of Service Information System

Information, it is said, is power, and the proliferation of web-based information systems (IS) has made the potential for empowerment by information available to an increasingly large user population. The empowerment of consumers through quality of service information is a key component of modern UK economic and competition policy in order to both resolve certain information asymmetries between traders and consumers and facilitate switching, i.e. the ability of consumers to switch suppliers of goods and services. Using a case study approach, this paper concentrates not on the intricacies, physical design or specific information content of the IS itself but on the regulatory approach taken by the UK telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, to provide it. It considers how the mechanisms set up to provide and audit appropriate, comparable and reliable information actually favour the interests of the traders rather than the consumers. The result is that thos people at whom such information is undoubtedly aimed (consumers) and who need it to make rational choices in the market are actually disempowered, particularly those vulnerable groups who may have special information requirements. It concludes that if consumers are to be properly empowered by information in such systems, the regulator must do more to better protect the consumer interest and provide them with information they actually need and not the information that the traders are willing to provide.

Divestiture as a strategic option for change in NITEL: lessons from the BT and AT&T experience

PurposeAs NITEL, Nigeria's former national carrier, has been unable to cope with provision requirements needed by the country to support its development needs, this has led to changes in the attitude of the Nigerian government to competition within the industry. It is the contention of this paper that NITEL could learn from progress already made by its counterparts (such as BT and AT&T) in developed countries such as the UK and USA, especially in the area of regulation and divestiture.Design/methodology/approachIn order to examine these issues, this problem is addressed from two perspectives. In the first place, a comparison is carried out between the Nigerian telecommunications industry and progress already made in the UK and US telecommunications industry. In addition, although contextual differences do exist between the developed UK and US industry and the developing Nigerian market, such a comparison is seen as feasible based on previous research in this field. Arguably, it is suggested that divestiture amongst the numerous strategic initiatives is an option NITEL can explore.FindingsThe paper accepts that former monopolies BT and AT&T have developed divestiture theory and practice to address its failures. The question is whether these theories and practices might help NITEL address its challenges.Research limitations/implicationsIt is acknowledged that limitations within the paper might exist which may have impacted on the conclusion. In the first place, it could be argued that the existence of contextual differences between developed and developing telecommunications markets limits comparison between NITEL and BT/AT&T. Second, to an extent, it could be viewed as difficult to argue that divestiture successes in BT and AT&T could equate to similar successes in NITEL, especially considering the different economic realities NITEL has had to operate in. Third, it is also appreciated that it is difficult to effectively discuss the impact of a divestiture of NITEL without considering the significant changes in the use of telephony in Nigeria, i.e. the significant and increasing switch from fixed to mobile services.Originality/valueThe paper analyzes telecommunications companies in developing economies.

QoS requirements for a voice-over-IP PSTN

Voice over IP is already widespread in enterprise private networks and is growing in public switched voice networks as manufacturers withdraw support for earlier technologies. Packet transmission of voice can introduce new impairments, including packet loss, extra sources of delay, and the use of compressed speech coding, all of which may affect voice quality delivered to the user. Factors affecting the quality of a voice telephony connection are described, concentrating on those which are changed by the move to packet transmission, including the complex area of delay. We outline subjective testing based on users’ opinions of fragments of recorded audio material or of connections realised in a laboratory, and describe the abstraction of these results into transmission planning models to assist with design of networks and their QoS mechanisms. QoS requirements are stated for a packet technology to support a PSTN and ISDN service in the UK telecommunications environment.

Managing the Political Life Cycle of Regulation in the UK and German Telecommunication Sectors

Abstract**** Résumé en fin d’article; Zusammenfassung am Ende des Artikels; resumen al fin del artículo. : Economic regulators are accountable to politicians – both government and ministers – parallel regulatory authorities, such as cartel offices, consumers and regulatees. This article investigates how the relationship between regulators and stakeholders evolves as a function of market developments and political learning. Drawing on a comparative case study of the UK and German telecommunication sector, the paper illustrates how regulators constrained by administrative and business traditions have asserted their discretion over politicians by developing sophisticated political relationship with a wide range of stakeholders. The paper concludes that while regulators have undoubtedly diverged from the initial delegation of powers, there is little evidence to suggest that European regulators will converge on a single regulatory model.

Sell, sell, sell [spectrum trading

The process of spectrum trading and liberalisation is making its debut in the UK. Radio spectrum is a major asset to the UK, contributing some £24bn to the economy each year and underlying several aspects of our lives. After carefully reconsidering the way in which this vital resource should be managed, Ofcom, the UK's telecommunications regulator, has recently published an important consultation document which sets out the government's plans for radio spectrum in the medium and long term. Spectrum has been managed in the UK for around 100 years, using the worldwide approach of the spectrum manager deciding on both the use of a particular band and which users are allowed to transmit in it. In recent years, as demand has started to exceed supply in some areas, this approach to spectrum management has started to become problematic. Where spectrum is scarce, 'beauty contests' and auctions have been used by governments to choose between competing would-be service providers. Auctions solve the problem to some degree in that they decide who can use the spectrum, but they do not allow users to change the use of that spectrum. Economists have suggested that if the market were able to determine the best use of the spectrum as well, great benefits to spectrum users and to society would result. The article outlines Ofcom's proposals.

Strategic Change in UK Telecommunications:: Empirical Evidence

The global telecommunications marketplace has witnessed considerable and unprecedented changes in the past 25 years culminating in the transformation of industry structures, market-specific structures and the internal structures of incumbent telecommunications operators. Against this backdrop, this paper reports empirically on the evolving behavioural nature of the incumbent UK telecommunications operator (BT) 1 1 Disclaimer: It is not the intention of this study to criticise managerial behaviour or managerial decisions of BT and therefore the study should be viewed from the perspective of assisting in furthering understanding of the impact of UK telecommunications privatisation on the evolving nature of change at the former UK incumbent network operator. since privatisation in 1984 through the implementation of a number of key change initiatives. A case study approach was adopted, with face-to-face interviews being carried out with senior executives, using semi-structured questionnaire checklists. Content analysis was subsequently applied to collected data and results allude to the impact of corporate level strategic decision-making in terms of identifying evolving behavioural characteristics of cultural and structural changes at the firm.

Information overload: context and causes

This paper present interim results on a research project on information management issues within the UK telecommunication and financial sectors. The specific focus of the paper is information overload. Our research, although at an early stage when this paper was written, suggests that organizational climate may play a significant role in influencing the degree to which human information behaviour moves from being beneficial to the organization to creating overload. We argue that there is a recursive relationship between climate and culture and illustrate our arguments with data from one of our case study organizations: a large multi-national bank. Here a climate of mistrust reinforced a culture of ‘risk avoidance’. We describe the antecedents of these elements of the work organization and their influence on information behaviour.

Natural or Unnatural Monopolies in UK Telecommunications?

This paper analyses whether scale economies exists in the UK telecommunications industry. The approach employed differs from other UK studies in that panel data for a range of companies is used. This increases the number of observations and thus allows potentially for more robust tests for global subadditivity of the cost function. The main findings from the study reveal that although the results need to be treated with some caution allowing/encouraging infrastructure competition in the local loop may result in substantial cost savings.

Services innovation and the transformation of work: the case of UK telecommunications

Current transformations in technologies and industrial structure of UK telecommunications have important implications for skills and work organisation. This is examined in different divisions of a large UK telecommunications firm: call centres, customer service centres, engineering sectors and the R&D department. The effect of these transformations on the development of firm competences is discussed.

Globalising telecommunications: the case of British Telecommunications PLC

The global telecommunications marketplace has witnessed considerable and unprecedented changes in the past twenty‐five years, so much so, that comparative recognition of most telecommunications fixed‐link network operators is impossible. Consequently, industry structures, market specific structures and the internal operation of incumbent firms have been transformed by visionary strategic directional changes. Demonstrably, the impact of national strategic intentions have identified clear shifts away from predominantly monopolistic – high bureaucratic, labour‐intensive and government‐run service providers, towards distinct deregulated markets – supporting increasingly competitive, innovative and market‐led organisations. With this in mind, this study considers the nature of organisational strategic evolution and its associated consequences on the UK incumbent BT, since UK telecommunications privatisation. A case study approach waqs adopted, with face‐to‐face interviews being carried‐out with senior executives, using semi‐structured questionnaire checklists. Content analysis was applied to the data set and results alluded to the nature of both strategic evolution and the emerging strategic focus occurring within the firm. Against the is backdrop, BT was seen to evolve from a dormant, fat, inward‐looking and inefficient organisation, towards a more dynamic, forward thinking, creative and global organisation. A conceptual model partraying the impact of strategic change on transforming the business focus of BT is developed.

Regulation of Telecom: What Works & Why? Lessons of Independent Central Banks

Regulation of Telecom: What Works & Why? Lessons of Independent Central Banks