Mobile operators can more than double their returns on their cash investments by putting into place smarter networks and subsequently offering smarter services, according to a new report. By building smarter networks and delivering smart services, mobile operators can capitalise on that value and more than double cash returns to 13.3 per cent.

Tellabs, the network supplier, has announced that French ISP Celeste has appointed it to deploy an optical fibre transport network. The network expansion by Celeste is in response to demand from its business customers for greater bandwidth. As a result Celeste said it will be extending its fibre optic network to all major cities in France, stretching over 4,000Km in total, taking in Lille, Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Lyon and Strasbourg.

Russia’s mobile operators are moving to IP backhaul to deal with explosive growth in data traffic. Leading Russian carrier MTS (Mobile TeleSystems) said this week that it is expecting 86 per cent growth in Russian data traffic by 2015, forcing a strategic focus on network transport.

Mobile operators could be set to reach ‘End of Profit’ in a little over two years, as the costs of building and running their networks exceed the revenues that they are generating, according to a forecast compiled by network solutions vendor Tellabs. North American carriers are most at risk, with the firm suggesting that net income for the region’s carriers could sink below outgoings as early as the first quarter of 2013.