Facing difficulties in the 4G era, "telecommunications union cooperation" is a helpless move and an inevitable choice
The communications industry has been undergoing restructuring and transformation for more than ten years, with two of the most influential ones. One was in 2002, when China Telecom was split into Southern Telecom and Northern Netcom by the North and South; the other was The first time was in 2008, when China Unicom was split up. The CDMA part merged with China Telecom, and the GSM part merged with China Netcom and was still called China Unicom.
It can be seen from these two industry restructurings that the original Netcom and the original China Unicom were most affected, followed by China Telecom, and China Mobile has remained intact and uninvolved.
As an old communicator with more than ten years of grassroots work experience, I deeply feel the huge impact of industry restructuring. On the surface, it seems to be a reshuffle of the organizational structure and personnel of each operator, but in fact The above is a kind of torture for enterprises, and it also leads to the current unbalanced development pattern of the communications industry.
However, the pain lies with the communication people and the joy lies with the common people. Because of such changes, the originally monopolized communications market has been broken up, forming a competition among multiple companies, with tariffs falling and services improving. This is The tangible results brought about are also manifestations of industry progress.
God is always fair.
In the 3G era, the worst TDSCDMA network was built by China Mobile, which has been living a stable life for these years, while the better WCDMA and CDMA2000 gave China Unicom and Telecom a rare opportunity. It can be said that they did not work hard. They relied on counterattacks when the market was completely weak and accumulated some wealth.
So, in the communications market, the three operators are actually about the same, with similar levels of personnel. No one is absolutely stronger. It’s just that the companies themselves have different foundations and different network capabilities, which leads to differences in operations. Just like in the 2G era, China Mobile relied on good signal to completely crush China Unicom. When 3G came, China Unicom could still ride on China Mobile's neck and laugh at China Mobile's 3G failure. The joke was not very popular at the time: "Today's big fool, holding an Apple machine, Insert mobile 2G card".
In order to stimulate the development of the country's economy, 4G came so fast that the two brothers China Telecom and China Unicom have been working hard for 3G for many years. Before they could live a good life, they It won a fierce counterattack from China Mobile. After all, China Mobile has been suppressed in the past five years. After getting the 4G license, it immediately shot it, fast and hard, catching China Telecom and China Unicom off guard, so that more than 70% of China's 4G users They are all developed by mobile.
According to the operating data released by the three operators in December 2015, China Mobile’s net increase in users in the month was 1.053 million, totaling 826 million, and the number of 3G users was 169 million, a decrease for 10 consecutive months, while 4G users had a net increase of 24.959 million, bringing the total to 312 million. China Mobile users had a net increase of 19.607 million for the year; of which 4G users had a net increase of 222 million; China Telecom’s mobile users increased by 133 million, reaching 197.9 million, of which 3G/4G net added 2.1 million, reaching 143.13 million. The cumulative net increase of mobile users throughout the year was 12.28 million, including a net increase of 24.5 million 3G/4G users. The total number of 4G terminal users was 58.46 million. The annual net increase was approximately 51.38 million; China Unicom lost 262,000 mobile users that month, with a total number of 287 million users, and a net increase of 3.612 million 3G/4G users, totaling 1.8.4 billion users, with a net decrease of 12.441 million mobile users throughout the year, totaling 287 million users, of which 3G and 4G users had a net increase of 34.745 million to 184 million, and GSM users had a net decrease of 47.186 million to 103 million.
It can be seen from the above data that after the introduction of 4G, China Mobile reversed the situation of continuous user loss and began to grow positively, occupying the vast majority of the entire new market. China Telecom is better. After experiencing continuous user losses in 2014, growth was achieved in 2015, but China Unicom is not optimistic. It has maintained user losses throughout the year, and a considerable part of these lost users have defected to China Mobile, and the other part is channels. some "moisture" in it.
From the perspective of a grassroots communications person, I feel that the cooperation between China Telecom and China Unicom has indeed avoided an industry disaster.
As the saying goes, "Blessings are hard to share, but hard times are easy to bear." The predicament faced by China Telecom and China Unicom in the 4G era has made the two of them have to stick together to stay warm. The purpose of teaming up is not to compete with Big Brother. Move for PK, but reduce "internal friction".
Operators are all listed companies, and operating performance determines the future of the leadership. Hard indicators such as revenue and profit require real money. But in today's saturated market, is that easier said than done? Developing new users is difficult and costly; maintaining old users also costs money; To improve customer service levels, we must continue to increase investment; and the more important investments in 4G network construction and optical fiber transformation will be converted into depreciation and amortization costs, which will significantly reduce profits.
The smartest way now is to reduce costs to increase efficiency! Therefore, cooperation between China Telecom and China Unicom in network construction, service sharing, etc. can avoid duplication of investment and vicious competition between the two, and can bring immediate results. Why not? If we do not cooperate and continue to fight, not only will investment overwhelm the two, but the serious lack of market investment will also cause users to ruthlessly abandon them, eventually leading to a quagmire of losses. Employee benefits will continue to decline, further suppressing morale. This is the case for central enterprises This cannot be tolerated by the competent authorities.
To be honest, the communications industry has been struggling for more than ten years and has tried various models. It is not easy to finally form a mutually restrictive competition model between the three operators.
For an enterprise, it is easy to split up, because more departments and positions can be separated, and both leaders and employees have more opportunities to choose. However, merging is difficult because the institutions are merged. Two into one, the number of positions has been greatly reduced. It is a headache to use whom and whom not to use. Moreover, we are also faced with conflicts and even confrontations between different internal groups and different cultures, which may become a stumbling block to the development of the enterprise. I believe that after more than ten years of reform, the name was changed from Telecom to Communications, then to China Netcom, and then to China Netcom. Those old telecom people in the north who changed their name to China Unicom should have the most experience, right? Today's China Unicom has gone through so many twists and turns, and Telecom has finally been stable for two years. If another round of corporate mergers leads to instability or even dispersion of people's hearts and a waste of resources, it will really be a disaster. Five years It's hard to get over it, it's not good for employees, it's bad for the development of the company, and it's irresponsible to users.
Therefore, under adverse market conditions, stability is paramount. This is very important for the long-term development of China Telecom and China Unicom.
A helpless move is also an inevitable choice.
Have a good trip!
