International carrier Vodafone has sold 5.5 per cent of Indian operation Vodafone Essar to Indian medical services provider Piramal Healthcare for $640m. Vodafone is required to divest the stake to bring it back below the 74 percent ownership threshold, which is the Indian limit for foreign investment within a company. In July Vodafone acquired Essar’s holding in the operation, taking it beyond that threshold.
Healthcare is arguably the most complex vertical sector in the world. It has also been one of the slowest to invest in It. Mobile operators are well positioned to help the health sector to modernise, cut costs and improve efficiencies and, in doing so, establish themselves at the centre of an industry that is only going to carry on growing.
In the fourth instalment from his book Being Mobile, which is being serialised exclusively on Telecoms.com, Ofcom’s William Webb looks at the opportunities for wireless technology in the healthcare sector and the improvements it could help bring about.
Mobile Communications international August 2010
Shared Roots: The growing interest in deep network sharing.
Healthy business: Enthusiasm for m-health services is on the up.
Message Management: How operators can keep their place in mobile messaging.
There were growing signs of a turnaround in the industry this week, with a number of mobile players reporting investor-satisfying quarters. First up was once-troubled handset vendor Sony Ericsson, which delivered its second consecutive quarterly profit during Q2 with a whopping €12m. Ok, it’s not a lot but it’s better than the loss of €213m delivered in the second quarter of last year, although it is down from a profit of €21m in Q1.
Demonstrating the growing importance of the healthcare sector in the operator community, Spain-based Telefónica on Tuesday launched a global e-health unit tasked with the decentralisation of clinical processes and ubiquitous and remote access to these services.
Opportunities in the global mobile healthcare market are estimated to be worth between $50bn and $60bn in 2010, prompting operators to step up their initiatives in this emerging sector.
M-health is set to take a considerable slice of the US medical device and pharma markets. Europe is eyeing the market, too. But to determine the adaptability of the concept in local context, Africa could well provide a good example.
Informa Telecoms & Media hosted the inaugural Mobile Healthcare Industry Summit in London in early December. It was a First World setting with predominantly First World protagonists and participants and a lot of First World technology on show. But it is the Third World – or emerging markets, to use a more current term – that might actually end up playing the leading role in mobile healthcare.
A step in the right direction but does it go far enough?
Sharing an allowance among family members is one ...
I agree with Dan about this being a excellent read, and that QNX is not well known but sooner or ...
Excellent read with some actual facts compared to the hack journalist/bloggers on the interest. Many don't understand what QNX ...
The main issue with Telenor is that whether they made underhand payments to ge the licenses. If they did, then ...
Over The Top providers have become the staple wildcard in almost any sector set on a collision path with mobile. By and large they are very good at what they do: connecting a user with their chosen content or service by whatever means available.
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