SON - Self-organizing Networks or Self-optimizing Networks gained some traction recently - see: "AT&T Deploys Intucell SON Solution (Est. $55M Over 4 Years)" - here and "Ericsson automates optimization of mobile networks" - here.
Last November Infonetics said ".. SON is about to skyrocket: we forecast global SON software revenue to grow at an 84% CAGR from 2010 to 2015" (see "Infonetics Sees $3B Mobile Optimization and SON Market by 2015" - here).
"The model finds that the total cost of network deployment and operations can be reduced by 25% or more through the deployment of a hybrid SON architecture, leading to an EBITDA 5% larger than if the SON features were not implemented".
See "Hybrid SON ROI in realistic deployments of mixed 3G/4G networks" - here.


