Global communications service provider revenue will grow steadily, and likely will accelerate into 2010, says Brian Protiva (News - Alert), ADVA Optical Networking CEO. That will be good news for many in the service provider business, compared to 2009.

But efficiency gains likely will be the watchword for global service providers in 2010, as the economic recovery is shaped more like a "u" than a "v," says Protiva. "In general, it's not a great environment, but it will be healthy."

Still, looking out over the past decade, 2010 probably will prove to be "one of the worst years for growth of the last decade, like 2001 to 2003," he says. In large part because of that relatively sluggish revenue growth, "use of existing assets will be important" for service providers, who will continue looking for ways to reduce costs and increase efficiencies," Protiva says.

Efficiency will be especially important for mobile service providers who are facing new needs to dramatically increase offered bandwidth. Mobile providers are moving from T1 to Ethernet bandwidth in their backhaul, for example, to support mobile broadband services and users.

"What does that mean?" Protiva rhetorically asks. That's a huge link increase" and will be matched by investments in the radio and other parts of the infrastructure as well. At a time when it will not be possible for revenue to rise in tandem with those bandwidth increases, it is clear that operators will have to wring more efficiencies out of assets they already operate.

Those efficiency efforts will take many forms. Where it is feasible, carriers will try to reduce the need to move bits in some cases, alleviating strain on core networks. They will try to simplify service provisioning and other elements of operating cost, as they have been doing for years.

Suppliers will face a tougher competitive environment as well. In the next-generation transport business, there will be a more-complex pricing environment. It will be "quite an aggressive environment," he says.

Aggressive competition is one reality. But carrier capital budgets still are returning to a more-normal pattern, and might not reach what many would consider a "typical" level until 2011, some predict. So innovation to create differentiation is one of the few variables ADVA (News - Alert) believes it can control.

"We have to differentiate using technology, as there will be strong price deflation of transmitted bits," says Protiva. "We spend a lot of time optimizing our global R&D to organize and innovate well and efficiently."

Though an improvement will be seen in 2010, "I'm not jumping for joy," Protiva says.