Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) has been a consistent topic of conversation thus far at Management World 2013. For the as-yet uninitiated, NFV is the technology being used to virtualize the network’s control plane, as Amdocs’ Shannon Bell aptly describes. So, things like policy management, diameter signalling control, session border control, and maybe even real-time charging, are all beginning to fall under this emerging term’s umbrella. If you’re not confused yet, try this on for size – NFV, in a proper sense, exhibits characteristics of cloud computing. Mainly that includes the concept of elasticity, another term
Read More »Redknee has been making headlines with its bold acquisition of NSN’s BSS business. Tony Poulos recently quizzed Redknee CEO, Lucas Skoczkowski on what can be expected from the new combined entity. Video courtesy Juliet Media and TelcoProfessionals.com
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The Beginning There was a time, Before Mobile, when things seemed stark and simple. Your telephone, if you had one, lived in the hall, or at the foot of the stairs. It did not ring very often. There were waiting lists for telephones and there were Complaints Departments. It was a time of monopolies, a time when, in many countries, the Government owned the telephone company. Customers were called subscribers and they paid their bills. It seems stark in today’s context, but owning a telephone, like a TV, was a status symbol and something of
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We’re in the midst of a new wave of MVNOs. There’s a resurgence of interest in this once-thought-to-be-debunked business model. It is fueled in part by growing demand for contract-free prepaid services and competitively priced mobile broadband (or just wireless broadband, because at 4G speeds, any broadband might as well be wireless). The immutable fact that any aspiring MVNO quickly runs into is that MVNO billing is actually very tough to do correctly. There’s a glut of “cloud billers” in the market – see our ongoing debate on what cloud billing even means- who profess
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We’ve been trying to define Cloud-based billing terminology better, but we also need to look at who’s using some of the solutions. Cloud-billing, or really BaaS (because I happen to think that reflects something more sophisticated than lightweight billing for recurring subscriptions) isn’t just for telcos. Now, if a telco adopts a BaaS solution, that probably speaks pretty well to its robustness and capabilities. But, the nature of the cloud-billing space is that it cuts horizontally across a variety of vertical industries, their emerging digital services segments, and the horizontally oriented cloud-based solution providers who
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A few weeks ago, we began trying to define all of the different terms that revolve around the concept of “cloud billing.” Several experts chimed in on the discussion. In some cases, we’ve made progress on drawing out better definitions. In others, we’ve uncovered more areas that need definition. There isn’t much agreement on what cloud billing is, though there seems to be some agreement on what it is not. So, here’s a shot at refining our initial definitions. Now that we’ve introduced open commenting, please feel free to add your thoughts right here. Cloud
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Direct operator billing and direct-to-bill mobile payments are two different animals. Here’s a look at the subtle differences between the two models, why they matter, and a look at the initial results of our survey on U.S. mobile users’ readiness to adopt direct-to-bill mobile payments in lieu of credit and debit cards. Direct-Operator-Billing Is For Apps and the Like Direct operator billing entered the mainstream spotlight back in September when Facebook announced it would work with Bango to enable its users to charge their Facebook purchases directly to their mobile bills. Direct operator billing reportedly
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One of the realities of the OSS/BSS business is that CSPs are often reticent regarding their choices of supplier. Few want to be seen as publicly endorsing their own vendors, for a variety of reasons. Confidentiality is usually baked into a contract, so when a vendor gets to announce a customer, there’s usually a pretty high comfort level on the CSP’s side about its commitment to the vendor. That’s why NetCracker’s recent flurry of contract announcements – like Swisscom, Sprint, KDDI, and Singtel - nabbed my attention. A chat with NetCracker VP of Strategy Sanjay Mewada further expanded
Read More »The history of major IT integration programs is littered with tales of grand plans undone by data migration disasters. It’s said that 70 percent of all major IT integration programs fail to deliver on time, within budget, or at all. Usually failure results because of something to do with data. It’s either too disparate, too inaccurate, too misaligned, too voluminous, or all of the above. Clever approaches to data model mapping and cleansing have helped in some cases, but the industry has long sought an effective antidote to the data migration poison pill. Semantic search
Read More »Just nine days ago, we asked whether Windstream, a company with relatively simple service models could succeed without consolidating its many billing systems. The backdrop for this story is the debate regarding Telcos’ future; must they move up the value chain, or can they thrive as commodity businesses? Windstream is our test case for the commodity play, thus we’ve noted with interest its Carrier Ethernet expansion announcement this week. The announcement states: “Carrier Switched Ethernet provides wholesale carriers access to both ILEC and CLEC exchanges within the Windstream network. With the solution, interconnect ports of
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