Why do Telcos need to rationalise products?

Product rationalization is a wealth accretive activity that generates both hard and soft benefits and it is one of the hallmarks of competitive Telcos that exhibit high TSR performance.

"Good" Telcos like BT and Telecom Italia use product rationalization to become better players by increasing revenue (up/X-sell, reduced time to market) and lowering costs (lower product development/maintenance costs, integration costs).

"Great" Telcos like NTT DoCoMo and Illiad use product rationalization to realize not only hard benefits, as mentioned above, but also to shape the game to their advantage by securing key technologies, partnerships and exerting pricing power in the marketplace.