008 that the new opera- tors have to open their base station towers and trunk network to their competitors (Jeung 2008f). This decreases the capital expenditure in building the 3G networks. It has been estimated that the overall capital expenditure used to enhance and upgrade the networks in the mainland China will be over 100 billion yuan (over 10 billion euros) in the coming few years (Jeung 2008f). All in all, the interviews were conducted at the time the new market structure was already in sight, but the participants did not yet have a clear understanding what Insights from Operator Interviews changes would be caused by this in terms of the software production and usage that interests us in this context. One can argue, though, that the new operators need more knowledge from outside than in the previous phases, because the schedule to start 3G network operations is very tight. Software-wise they are most probably forced to rely heavily on external software providers. CSP Software Acquisition Strategies 2.1 Software Development vs Application Procurement The developments in the application portfolios of the providers is tied to their technology portfolio management on one hand, and on the other, to their business portfolio, i.e., the variety of services the CSP chooses to provide. New services or a change in the existing ones normally mean some change or new developments (maintenance measures or software development and/or integration) in the set of OSS/BSS systems and applications the company is maintaining. Besides technolo- gy evolution, business development drives the developments in the OSS/BSS software and systems. Resources are required besides developing or buying soft- ware licenses, also for the maintenance of existing systems. With maintenance, we understand, as defined with the ISO/IEC 14764 standard, the corrective, adaptive, perfective and preventive measures, modifications and improvements of systems and software in the use of an enterprise. For its existing and new OSS/BSS software systems, the 