A new telecoms landscape

Telecommunications carriers are under pressure and the entire telco delivery model, which has remained roughly the same since telephony was invented, is rapidly changing. Technology offers carriers the only hope of competing and remaining relevant in a world where the infrastructure is becoming commoditised.

A Gartner Hype Cycle report* released last year provides some advice as to what technologies carriers should be investigating.

"Significant changes to the markets in which carriers compete are putting renewed pressure on the network operations framework controlling their business networks," the report says.

"This framework comprises technologies such as business support systems (BSSs), operations support systems (OSSs) and other products and services bought from external suppliers. Together, these technologies are designed to help carriers develop, deliver, manage and support established services, and accommodate new ones that will arise as network infrastructure evolves.

"Traditional operations technologies, such as those connected with inventory," the report continues, "aren't the separate point solutions they once were. Inventory systems, which help carriers manage network resources, are gradually converging with other resource management systems. In fact, functions for network procurement, distribution, deployment, maintenance and retirement - indeed, a network's entire life cycle - are gradually becoming part of an integrated system that enables more transparency, better financial management and faster launches of new services."

Carriers should make sourcing decisions for convergent mediation and revenue assurance software and services.

Gartner

The report goes on to say that none of the new technologies and approaches that enable carriers to manage and improve the efficiency of their networks, to make money from their network assets, will have a transformational impact within the next two years. Gartner claims the main reason for this is that most carriers prioritise their physical network infrastructure over the software and services that support their networks and enable new services.

"In the short term (less than two years from now)," Gartner recommends, "carriers should make sourcing decisions for convergent mediation and revenue assurance software and services. Convergent mediation offerings enable fixed and mobile carriers to roll out new content-based services and service bundles for both voice and data services.

"Revenue assurance offerings help carriers make money from services they have not previously charged for. Though they won't transform a carrier's overall business, both kinds of offering will have an immediate and tangible impact on the bottom line.

"In the medium term (the next two to five years)," it continues, "carriers will benefit most from IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and service delivery platform (SDP) integration services. Carriers should evaluate suppliers of these services now, though there is no immediate need to take any sourcing decisions."

Other high-impact, medium-term solutions and services that carriers should evaluate now include:

* Solutions that ease back-office integration pains (the OSS through Java Initiative)
* Services that facilitate the migration to all-IP networks (network transition and management services)
* Solutions that enable carriers to charge users for any kind of next-generation service, in granular detail (universal charging platforms)
* Solutions that improve the quality of next-generation services (IP services assurance)

The analyst house also sounds a word of warning: "A market once crowded with traditional OSS, BSS and equipment vendors is becoming home to suppliers of enterprise software applications, hardware systems and IT services, including consulting and systems integration services. Moreover, these newcomers range from global companies to niche start-ups. As a result, carriers have a wider choice of supplier.

"That's good news, but they should bear two things in mind. First, the diversity of suppliers makes it harder to choose one... Secondly, the diversity of network operations offerings means that no one vendor will be able to address carriers' every concern in OSSs, BSSs and network-related services."

*Gartner information courtesy of Gartner Africa and sourced from Hype Cycle for Carrier Network Operations, 2006 (Update), Norbert J Scholz, Wm L Hahn, Burt W Sky, Martina Kurth, John Radcliffe, July 2006.