Vendors are continuing to use the ‘scissor-effect’ diagram in their marketing to highlight the threat of rapid data traffic growth in developed markets and the risk it brings to operator margins. However, marketing based on this diagram today is increasingly irrelevant because the industry has moved on. There will be ample opportunities over the coming five years for operators to avoid the cataclysm. Nevertheless, the industry as a whole needs to work together to stop the ‘scissor-effect’ becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
