'Coopetition' can beat competition

THE EDITOR, Sir:

It is generally perceived that healthy competition is the most effective way for customers to access affordable and valued services or products from service providers. While this holds true in most cases, it does not mean that other approaches to conducting business are necessarily ineffective.

There are a number of reasons to suggest that intercompany cooperation, or 'coopetition', is likewise desirable, particularly for the growth and development of the region's telecommunications industry.

The Caribbean and Latin American regions have one of the fastest-growing telecommunications sectors in the developing world. With an array of service providers spread over numerous countries, consumers in most areas now have multiple options from which to choose.

However, while such a diverse market can result in competitive prices and services, it can also lead to conflicting and uneven standards, rather than effectively maintaining a consistent, standardised environment. Add to that the major discrepancies between companies' individual pools of capital resources and the result is a direct impact on both the price and quality of service.

POOLING RESOURCES

Two or more companies pooling their resources together can potentially mitigate such a scenario. By combining the reach and capabilities of independent networks, collaborating service providers can expand their footprint, drive down operating costs and perhaps, and even more importantly, increase intangible assets such as human capital and operational knowledge.

Such improvements could allow companies in the region to become more focused on what really matters: innovating, enabling, and serving.

Columbus Communications (Flow) is a relatively new entrant into this region, we are neither inexperienced with, nor oblivious to, this situation. And while a competitive environment is generally regarded as the most efficient way to combat this problem, today's state of affairs proves that it cannot be the only answer. This type of cooperation is an evolved market dynamic, one that our complex region should not be afraid of pursuing - and cooperation between competitors is a conversation that players in the region should not be afraid of having.

Today, however, almost a decade into the liberalisation journey, providers such as us, and regulators, must now evolve.

Evolution of the regulatory framework is key. But so, too, is the new responsibility and self-governing role of service providers.

JEANETTE LEWIS

PR Manager, Columbus

Communications (Flow)