In a new report, the independent telecoms analyst states that the market for outsourced managed services is still very young, but it is an area with much growth potential.

According to its findings, the move to delivering value-added services will ensure customer loyalty, improve margins and encourage longer-term contracts. It also enables intermediaries to benefit from wholesale carriers' lower costs, greater efficiencies and expertise.

Paris Burstyn, Ovum senior analyst and author of the report, said: "There is a significant growth opportunity for wholesale carriers with the necessary network resources and skills to deliver managed services to network operators and other intermediaries. The market is only just starting to take shape but we expect carriers to quickly move beyond commodity bandwidth to providing value added services.

"The managed services provided by wholesale carriers are built from those that they provide for their own needs, for example security and data centers. Leveraging them to deliver integrated wholesale managed services to intermediaries represents a natural evolutionary step in developing new business."

According to the report, there is significant demand for the services wholesale carriers can offer. "We expect the world's major telecoms players to support a growing range of managed wholesale services that build on their network infrastructure, connectivity and in-house skills to encompass a range of applications and bundled services," Burstyn said.