Customer demand for cost-effective IT systems which promise data monetization, content and partner management capabilities and above all else fully end-to-end OSS/BSS integration, was the driver behind the acquisition of Convergys’ BSS business, according to the management of Netcracker. The strategy however highlights the continuing trend towards single, fully-integrated platform solutions and away from open, standardized interfaces.
2012 promises to be an exciting year in the OSS and BSS sectors as the industry moves into the next phase of support software deployment. Despite the economic gloom which still hangs over many of the world’s major economies, there is room for optimism in most of the geographical regions as operators in the mature markets begin to explore the possibilities of policy-based on-line charging (OLC)
It is now generally agreed among most OSS/BSS vendors and an increasing number of operators that the market focus for policy control and its related technologies has shifted from basic traffic management to enabling the implementation of real-time discounting, upselling, cross-selling and a range of mobile broadband services as yet unimagined. Fundamental to the realization of this bright new and hopefully profitable future is the requirement for close integration between OLC (On-Line Charging) and the PCRF.
Much has been said and written of late about congestion in mobile data networks, a subject brought to the fore by the introduction of the iPhone and its subsequent clones. Indeed, the problem has precipitated a whole new sub-section of the OSS/BSS industry devoted specifically to identifying and controlling wireless broadband data traffic. There is potentially an equally serious problem however in the form of congestion on the signaling channel caused by ‘chatty’ applications and the signaling requirements of increasingly complex services running on smartphones.
The acquisition of U.S. –based OSS/BSS vendor Telcordia by Ericsson was not entirely unexpected as Telcordia’s owners announced earlier this year they were looking for a buyer. The $1.15bn price tag was just over the lower estimate of $1bn most pundits thought the company to be worth, so Ericsson probably got off lightly. The deal has confirmed however that in terms of the big players in OSS/BSS, it is the telecoms vendors and not as was widely expected some time ago IT vendors which are leading the charge towards the deployment of next-generation operational and business support systems.
One thing which became clear at Informa Telecoms and Media’s recent Mobile Broadband Traffic Management event, held in London, was that a much-anticipated change is happening in the market for policy control.
News that email and interactive marketing solutions provider ExactTarget is to upgrade its market segmentation capabilities with Netezza’s TwinFin data warehouse appliance may not be raising eyebrows, but in the light of IBM’s impending $1.7bn acquisition of Netezza, it underlines the growing importance of data analytics to the communications industry.
After whisperings in the industry about possible take-overs by various unnamed suitors, the buy-out of billing system vendor Intec finally looks set to be more than just a rumour this time around. US BSS vendor CSG has laid £236.7m on the table in a bid to acquire the UK company and so haul itself back into the international telecoms support systems market.
The dominoes are beginning to tumble. The move toward tiered pricing for mobile data services started by AT&T is spreading, with the news that O2 UK is also abandoning flat-rate subscriptions in favor of tiered services, and more are bound to follow. However, in an age and an industry in which the new focus is on what customers want, rather than what their service providers think they want, it seems incongruous for operators to offer services based on their own needs rather than those of their customers.
Loading ...
