From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe

FROM BIT PIPE TO INTELLIGENT PIPE WITH POLICY AND CHARGING CONTROL

As communication service providers voice revenues decline, data has become the driver of revenue growth. However future revenues from data are threatened, by the explosion of non-revenue generating traffic, from over-the-top applications and Web 2.0 services.

Efficient ‘bit’ delivery will not be enough. Operators need the means to innovate, to use their key assets, to add more value to their services. Combining Policy Management with real-time charging can change how service providers package and sell data access, bringing subscriber and network data together to:

  • Create innovative data plans to differentiate offerings
  • Control subscriber usage of network resources and services
  • Enable subscribers to personalize services to build loyalty

Policy Management is an emerging area with great promise in meeting operators’ requirements for dynamic, intelligent, and granular control of subscribers, services and networks. Attend this Webinar to understand how policy control and charging are fundamental to an intelligent pipe strategy.

Speakers:
Chris Hoover

Chris Hoover , VP Product Management, Openet

Chris Hoover, vice president product management at Openet, has more than a decade of experience in mobile and networking technologies.  He has worked at Unwired Planet, (later known as Openwave) and was heavily involved with the Ericsson, Nokia, and AT&T coalition defining standards for the first IMS-based application initiative, “Push-to-Talk Over Cellular” (known as PoC).  Prior to that, Chris was manager of the STA network surveillance products at Narus. Chris holds a master’s degree from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Mark Newman

Mark Newman, Chief Research Officer, Informa

Mark is Chief Research Officer within Informa Telecoms & Media’s Industry Research division. In his role Mark is responsible for Informa Telecoms and Media’s thought leadership in the converging mobile, broadband and entertainment sectors.

Mark has 20 years experience in the telecoms sector as a journalist, analyst and commentator. He is a regular speaker and moderator at international conferences in Europe, the Americas and Asia and is often quoted in the global business press. He also conducts regular briefing sessions with operators, vendors, leading banks and accountancy firms on industry trends and developments.



Tags; charging, data, Openet, policy management, Uncategorized
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  • the presentation was hard to read as it was toooooo small. Can you please send me a copy of the presentation?

    Reply to mike abrams on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe

  • Please send me a copy of the slides, it is very hard to follow the presentation due to the small text.
    BR Monica

    Reply to Monica Madebrink on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe

  • Please, can you elaborate if you would see presence information as part of the Network API. If so, please provide some examples for presence information

    Reply to Andreas Mann on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe

  • Hi Chris,

    How do you see the user interface being enabled between the terminal and the PCC manager for real-time feature change?

    e.g. Java-based app; “PCC widgets”; native client; other?

    BR

    Moray Barclay

    Reply to Moray Barclay on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe
    • Chris Hoover

      Hi Moray,

      I’m not sure I fully understand your question, so feel free to correct me if you would like me to elaborate more; however, I think that application interactions with the PCC will be enabled through APIs. The specific functionality of the API set would be operator specific — enable service access, for example, or updating QoS parameters, etc.

      Chris Hoover

      Reply to Chris Hoover on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe

  • For operators who are still offering volume based plans, the proposed tier structure, be it dynamic or static tier, usage or service bundle plans may work. For operators who are already offering all-you-can-eat type of plan, what is the best way to allocate resources efficiently while maintaining an acceptable level of experience?
    Is there any operator deploying the policy control model advocated by 3GPP? Any experience to share by these operators?

    Reply to ch on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe
    • Chris Hoover

      Hi CH (hochihung@gmail.com),

      I’m not sure that there is an easy way to accommodate all-you-can-eat plans and maintain an acceptable level of service. Certainly the most obvious strategy is to invest in infrastructure (and, for wireless operators, LTE and the like). And I think that many people assume that this strategy, especially LTE, will be a panacea that will solve these problems nicely without the need to change packaging and pricing. But I believe this is wrong. Technologies such as LTE will be a slow roll out, with legacy infrastructure in place for many years. Too, despite the added bandwidth LTE provides, I think that the increased demand will cause congestion issues anyway.

      Even if infrastructure expansion and LTE deployment do somehow solve the congestion issues, they don’t solve the revenue issues caused by all-you-can-eat plans. Operators will need an improved ROI on infrastructure (and, more fundamentally, need to ensure the long term viability for their business).

      So, net-net, I don’t think operators will ultimately have a choice but to innovate their pricing models. The all-you-can-eat plan will remain an option, but only one of many (and an expensive one at that, I suspect).

      Chris Hoover

      Reply to Chris Hoover on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe

      • If mobile broadband is to substitute or to inroad into the fixed broadband market, flat rate plan is inevitable. Changing to flat, all-you-can-eat plan is a direction of no return, unless one can really find something meaningful to those who are willing to pay more. In the internet world, it seems to be very difficult to find. Radio resource is finite and an efficient/fair allocation is required, but how fair is fair? Bit tolerant type of applications are common and they may contribute around 50% of total traffic, should they be given lower priority in terms of resource allocation? These users are however paying the same charges as those using email/FTP or other browsing/streaming types of applications. Any idea on how to allocate the resource?

        Reply to ch on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe

  • Users are quite accostumed to pay flat rates for internet access, do you believe that is possible now trying to push for other pricing models?

    Reply to Ari on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe
    • Chris Hoover

      Hi Ari,

      If all other variables were to remain the same, I’d agree that new pricing models would be a difficult sell. But things aren’t the same. No longer is this a world of WAP phones, with subscribers occasionally using data connectivity to check a stock price. Smartphones have introduced completely new wireless data behavior, congestion related to that is new, and services available wirelessly (such as video) are new. Usable location based functionality — anticipated for a decade — is new. Mobile VOIP applications are new. And so on.

      So my feeling that innovations in the way that service access and bandwidth is packaged and sold is unlikely to be jarring or difficult to swallow — it’s part of a much broader evolution within the industry.

      Chris Hoover

      Reply to Chris Hoover on From Bit Pipe to Intelligent Pipe
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