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BuddeComm's Research Methodology

• BuddeComm's Approach to Forecasting
• Our Mission

BuddeComm's Research Methodology

Our research is based on both primary and secondary research that the company writes, analyses and compiles through our senior analysts supported by a network of experts, industry contacts and researchers from around the world. We cover the telecommunications markets in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, New Zealand, North America, the South Pacific Islands as well as publishing Global Overviews. We are particularly strong in the area of the emerging markets of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, often providing information which is not generally available. Our other strong points are our strategic and policies analyses in relation to the development of new fast broadband infrastructure, whereby we concentrate on the trans-sector use of this infrastructure for applications such as e-health, e-learning, smart grids, smart buildings and smart cities.

Sources for Secondary Research

All our researchers have established contacts with national governments, regulatory bodies and other government agencies who produce public information on the telecommunications market. These sources are mentioned throughout the research reports.

Over the last 30 years personal contacts have been built with the majority of the 500 leading telecommunications companies covered in our research. This not only provides inside information from these companies but often also provides them with access to a wealth of knowledge on the national telecommunications market. This allows the researchers to present an extremely well informed picture of the markets they cover.

Bringing together our analyses of the market, the industry developments that have taken place, combined with the secondary data and information we have available creates a strategic business report that provides key insights into the various geographic markets as well as product and services based developments.

Our Research Parameters

Providing all of this information also has its limits. Our aim is to provide information from the current year and provide estimates one or two years out and normally we delete any data that is older than two years and unable to be updated. In some situations older data is maintained, if we judge this to be important for our customers and if it still provides an accurate picture of that particular segment/topic. This is particular relevant in (emerging) areas where hard information is difficult to obtain. We endeavor to compensate for this by using our unique insights to provide our comments and analyses on those situations.

Combined, our researchers have access to hundreds of organisations, agencies, experts and companies. Even with these contacts we certainly don't pretend to provide all the data available in the marketplace nor are we always able to provide the detailed data, required for in-depth market analyses on certain market segments, product plans, etc. In these situations, we try to direct customers to other sources for this specific information.

By providing strategic business data, our reports should provide enough information to enable senior management to make their primary decisions. We estimate that we provide approximately 80% of the business data they require with a statistical accuracy within a 5-10% deviation. For the majority of our clients this level of detail is sufficient and enables us to maintain our competitive pricing policy. For us to provide the last 20% of detail would approximately triple our costs.

Our customers also have direct access to our researchers for questions and advice.

We are not financial analysts and don't provide financial data beyond high level company information such as revenues, subscribers, staffing levels, R&D and basic expenditure.

BuddeComm's Approach to Forecasting

Our client's demands for forecasts on new trends and developments particularly in the emerging markets and in the converging markets of telecoms, IT and Media, have influenced the combination of techniques to provide realistic predictions including:

• The use of scenarios
• A variety of personal sources within companies working in the market
• Our research parameters

Utilising the experience of our senior analysts, this approach is a little different from that taken by most of our colleagues in the industry and aims to eliminate much of the hype discussed by technologists thus producing the qualitative research that has become our speciality.

The use of scenarios

For the broad telecoms market we prefer to provide long term forecasts. Year-on-year forecasts are affected by the usual short-term fluctuations that are taking place in the market and in the economy.

We aim to avoid these fluctuations by taking a more long-term view and by presenting scenarios. For example:

What if a technology is successful:

• Now?
• In two years time?
• In five years time?

The answer to these questions, of course, will have a major impact on the potential success of the technology in question - the various versions of wireless broadband being a case in point. The longer the delay in introducing a technology, the greater the chance of a superior or better marketed technology replacing it.

Another example:

Affordability is as key as available technology, so we also look at what will be the growth if the service is priced at:

• $x;
• $y;
• $z?

The answer to these questions will have a crucial influence on operators' pricing strategies, and future development directions of the services.

International forecasting is often linked to the economic development that is taking place in the relevant countries, as well as, the economic climate worldwide. Economic, social and political stability are key factors in such predictions.

Obviously this level of forecasting can only be made in respect of developments that have already appeared on the radar. It is very hard to make predictions in this way without at least a conceptual development being in place.

Our aim is to deliver high-level strategic information on key industry and market developments in conjunction with market analysis, so advising our clients on potential market opportunities and warning them about various pitfalls. By the provision of this information our clients are able to make more accurate decisions, which will positively affect their businesses.

Our Mission

Within our stated parameters, we strive to excel, we strive to deliver beyond our customer's requirements and expectations and to achieve this, we go the extra mile. We are renowned for our customer service and like to be challenged by our clients to try to find that extra bit of information crucial for their decision.

We pride ourselves that over the last 30 years we have consistently made accurate business predictions and we continue to maintain a more conservative position thus ultimately helping our clients make informed strategic decisions.