IT outsourcing is set to increase in popularity next year, according to business intelligence solutions provider Informa Telecoms & Media.

In making its predictions for 2010, the group stated that the practice will increase in popularity and become more closely associated with network sharing.

“Both network sharing and outsourcing will continue to gain momentum as mobile operators seek to reduce their capex and opex burden,” said the organisation in a statement.

The firm’s chief research officer Mark Newman added that the dominance of the internet and the transition from hardware to software and services is creating an increasingly competitive telecommunications landscape that will lead more companies to introduce cost-cutting measures next year.

Last week, Julie Meyer, star of BBC’s Dragons’ Den Online, highlighted the importance of IT outsourcing as a cost-cutting measure when she said that small and medium-sized enterprises can thrive in the current economic climate by keeping their expenditure to a minimum.