Technology

Innovation has been the main driving force behind the telecom industry. Being part of a service sector it is extremely customer driven and is highly influenced by the advancements in technology. The sector involves high level of competition among several companies operating in the same markets hence innovation ends up being the key competitive edge that every company strives for.

ATT Inc.
ATT Inc. is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world it is the fastest growing 3G network in the United States that serves more than 85 million customers. The company was formed from the merger of communications giants SBC Communication and ATT Corporation in 2005. ATT enjoys a diversified portfolio offering services from wireless phone services, broadband internet to internet based television distribution.

ATT provides a global backbone network that can carry up to 18.7 petabytes of data traffic on average daily basis. It has also introduced and facilitated the introduction of revolutionary telecommunication products such as the iPhone 3Gs which was launched in June 2009. ATT enjoys the position of the only purely IP based television services. Besides the technology based products that the company offers, ATT is also the biggest telephone directory publisher providing the product to more than 170 million customers (AT  T, 2010).

Innovation and Success
ATT has innovation as part of its manifesto. It is one of the driving forces of the companys success. It has always used innovation as one of its competitive edges it strives to stay ahead of the competition by bringing in the technological advances to offer new products to customers.

Strategy
To inculcate innovation into the ATT operation, the company channelizes new ideas and facilitates the flow of new ideas from within or even outside the company. One of such examples is the Fast-Pitch Platinum Awards that are held annually to promote and inculcate new ideas in to the companys offering to the customers.

One other example of ATTs emphasis on innovation is the ATT Innovation Center, it is an institution made by the company to constantly bring in new technologies, applications and products to the customers.
This shows that ATT not only maintains relationships with the developers from the outside but also invests a significant amount of money towards in-house development as well.

The overall strategy of the organization is to bring in new products and to promote constant innovation within the organization.

Structure
ATT enjoys is an open organization, ideas flow easily throughout the hierarchy. Innovation is encouraged at all steps and is highly appreciated. Innovation centers and competitions are regularly held within and outside the organization to ensure that the company always has something new to offer to its customers.

Vodafone
Vodafone is the biggest cellular telecommunication company in the world based on revenue the company is valued at GBP 71.2 billion. The company has operations in 40 countries of the world in 5 continents through its own or partner operations, and serves to almost 323 million customers.

Being one of the leading telecommunication companies in the world, innovation is one of the key areas of emphasis for the company. Vodafone has divided is operations into two major components one is serving the consumers that is offering products for the use of general people and the other one is providing communication solutions for businesses(Vodafone, 2010).

Innovation and Success
The business model for Vodafone is directed towards providing solutions for customers at all levels. Innovation for Vodafone means reducing cost, reducing complexity and increasing operational efficiency.
Innovation has been the major success factor of the company over the years. The way it has diversified its portfolio and its expansion in other countries is just an example. It promotes innovation at all steps and for this reason hold a number of events all along the year to ensure the flow of ideas to the company.

Strategy
The strategy of Vodafone is the transformation of businesses and life across the globe, and to provide services that revolutionize the way things are done usually and make the processes less complicated and as simple as they can possibly get.

To improve solutions to businesses worldwide Vodafone specializes in providing machine to machine solutions. The focus of the technology is to facilitate inter machine communication, and make businesses work more efficiently. It enables the business to go global and better communicate among employees. The solutions provided are over a wide range of industries that includes fleet management, point of sale solutions etc.

Besides the general industry solutions provided by the enterprise, Vodafone also provides specific services for pharmaceutical and financial services industry. Products include making the transfer of patient data and better opportunity for doctors to consult other doctors on a particular case. Vodafone also services such as SMS alerts that are proactive for customers to tell them the status of their applications for mortgage etc.

For the purpose of brining and ensuring innovation in the Vodafone operations, the company takes a number of measures. The RD department is constantly in the struggle to develop new applications and products for the customers to take advantage of.  The department is referred as the Rndbackyard, implying that it is an in-house facility that brings innovations to the organizations.

To explore opportunities outside the organization, Vodafone runs a program Betavine which is an opportunity for outside developers to learn from others who are experts, discuss their ideas on the forum to further polish them and also publish their applications. The project is directed towards bringing betterment changes in the developing world but it shows the importance received by innovation within the organization.

Structure
Being a global company Vodafone enjoys a flexible infrastructure, the organization is designed in a manner where communication is facilitated at all levels and innovation is encouraged. Ideas at each level are valued and those who stand more value are nourished.

China Mobile
China Mobile Limited is the worlds biggest telecommunication services provider of the world in terms of the number of subscribers as it serves more than 500 million customers each day.  It is one of the largest Chinese companies in the world and a matter of pride foe Chinese economy. China Mobile is the first Chinese company that is based in mainland China that is listed on the Dow Jones index of the New York Stock Exchange.

The company went multinational after acquiring Paktel a Pakistani telecommunication company in 2007. China Mobile also acquired China Tietong in 2008 expanding its operations in landline services and internet service providing(China Mobile,2010).

Innovation and Success
Innovation is again the key characteristic in the companys success. Although with China Mobile innovation is more on the infra structural level, as they have been the main player in the development of cellular networks in China. Hence the while the product diversity may not show the levels of innovation as other cellular companies discussed in this paper but what is commendable is how the company has expanded over the years yet coping up with the technological advances in the world and also contributing to them through a number of programs.

Strategy
In developing countries what has been the highlight in terms of cellular phones expansions is the innovation shown by companies, since these markets are very price driven the innovation shown was in how the customers must be attracted.
 
China mobile has been innovative in this regard as well, as major cost cutting were needed to be explored and the company quite successfully did manage to do it. One such example is the tower sharing between companies and cutting the cost on hardware facilities.

The company also values synergy for innovation, the major example for this is the Joint Invention Lab a joint venture of China Mobile, Vodafone, Verizon Wireless and Softbank Mobile. The lab will focus on evolving technologies especially the mobile technologies the idea is develop a platform where consumers from the shared pool of customers get access to the developed applications that are made by the combined intelligence of the major telecommunication service providers of the world.

Structure
China Mobile being culturally driven has strong hierarchal structure compared to other companies discussed earlier. Despite the hierarchal structure the organization values innovation and that is evident from its success and status at the moment.