As a global organization, SCF has a front row seat to the opportunities and challenges emerging across regions and nations, making us uniquely positioned to identify trends and common themes.
When it comes to neutral hosts and private network service providers we are seeing common challenges across the globe: intense market competition, concerns over energy consumption, challenges in accessing spectrum and difficulties with regulatory frameworks – either navigating, complying or both.
In Asia however the market is undoubtedly more complex and, in many ways, generalising across the region makes little sense. Compared to Europe and the US for instance, standards – both regulatory and technological – are far more fragmented, requiring neutral hosts and private network providers to navigate varying frameworks and practices across different countries.
This fragmentation shows up across the board, from diverse technologies to differing cybersecurity regulations and varying spectrum allocation policies, and has a number of significant implications: slowing down and pushing up the cost of commercial rollouts, making VC investment more challenging to secure, and global interoperability much more difficult to achieve.
If you’re operating in Asia already this is not news to you. So how can SCF help?
A neutral industry voice
Firstly, we provide a neutral ground. In Asia in particular, we see a strong weighting towards MNOs which manifests itself in intense competition from established telecom operators with a strong market presence as well as in customer adoption and trust. More so than in other regions we see customers exhibiting loyalty to traditional telecom operators. But fulfilling government and end user demand for connectivity will require the industry to come together and adopt new technologies and commercial models. An inclusive forum like ours, in which all members can openly engage, can therefore play a critical role to more positive and constructive working and co-existence.
Access to global markets / extend your network
SCF is open to all those with an interest in accelerating and supporting the adoption of small cells, meaning both established players and new. Membership offers an opportunity to build your personal and organizational networks and spheres of influence in a neutral and positive environment. Plus, it offers unparalleled access to global markets: from Europe to North America to the Middle East – few organizations boast such reach and there are learnings and best practices that can adopted within Asia.
Policy and regulation lobbying
Most significantly however, SCF is leading the charge to work with policy makers across the globe to forge a baseline framework that builds on global best practice. While Asia does experience a more intense fragmentation than seen elsewhere the core challenges are universal, supporting the need for a baseline global regulatory framework. And SCF membership grants organizations of all size a critical mass to more effectively engage and impact standard and regulation development.
Together, we can do more to drive forward regulation and the roll out of neutral host and private networks across Asia.
For those of you based in the region, Richard Knight, SCF Chief Operating Officer, will be running a regulatory roundtable at the TowerXchange Meetup Asia in Kuala Lumpur on 28-29 November, where both SCF and non-SCF members are welcome.
To learn more about SCF membership or to book a meeting with Richard while he’s in Kuala Lumpur, email [email protected].