The telecommunications operators would be the next group to benefit from the cost savings and enhanced services made possible by moving operations overseas, according to a new survey conducted by the Deloitte Research.
Global operators were expected to "offshore" five percent of the industry's 5.5 million-strong labour force or 275,000 jobs by 2008, the professional services and advice organisation said.
What's more, the industry was expected to reap cost savings of 14 billion dollars a year by 2008 from improved call centre capabilities and enhanced broadband and mobile data services, the researcher said.
Deloitte said that so-called "off-shoring" had become common in the high tech and financial service industries, when companies moved jobs and sometimes operations from their home countries to locations where labour and business costs were cheaper.
The telecommunications companies were now poised to take advantage of the trend, Deloitte said, adding that early adopters could gain a 20 percent to 30 percent cost savings by 2008.
The industry's move, toward data services, would also fuel the trend making it even more and technically skilled support staff, Deloitte predicted.
Call centres, IT services, application service development and accounting and finance would be among some of the top offshore processes, the researcher said, adding that places like India, Argentina and Estonia would be the destinations of the choice.
However, off-shoring was not entirely rosy, the researcher warned, as operation complexity, loss of control, language, cultural barriers and objections from home country groups that did not want to see local jobs, go overseas obstacles.
Deloitte recommended that the companies engaging in the practice should start small, set realistic expectations, develop offshore expertise, find the right partner in a host country and be ready to move operations back home if the business, economic or political climate in the host country changed.
Deloitte derived its research from a survey of 42 operators in the fixed, mobile and cable segments completed in December 2003.
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