[Informa]: OSS/BSS Market CAGR - 4.7% for 2013-17

 
Alex Leslie reports to BillingViews that a recent market forecast by Informa Telecoms and Media (here, subscription required) finds that  "The BSS market will grow faster than the OSS market between now and 2017 .. By 2017, the BSS market will be worth $42.8 billion (from $30.6 billion in 2013), with OSS at $31.8 billion (from $28.4 billion in 2013) .. Informa do not see huge growth in cloud based BSS, nor indeed OSS .. Clearly real-time is now a priority for operators who need to ‘think like internet providers.’"

Informa also finds that:

• "The most important driver behind OSS/BSS revenue growth over the forecast period be LTE. 
• Major trends shaping the BSS sector are transformation, outsourcing and the drive towards centralized BSS. 
• OSS growth will be relatively strong in network management, data collection and presentation, particularly in terms of outsourced-management and software-management tools".

See "The OSS/BSS market to grow by $12 billion in next four years" - here.

[Operators Survey] Big Data will Generate New Business Models; Currently 10% of IT Budget

A new research by Julio Puschel [pictured] Informa Telecoms & Media (based on a survey conducted with approximately 120 operators in June 2013) finds that "The telecoms industry is starting to witness the initial Big Data implementations. Although these first examples are still far from building a solid proposition, they are providing a good opportunity for operators to test new applications that will influence how Big Data will evolve in the future"

".. Big Data is still ranked as a low priority by operators (see fig. 1) as most of their focus is still on efficiency, network optimization and customer experience management (CEM) .. 58% of the operators interviewed in the Informa survey agreed that the main long-term driver for Big Data will be generating new business models. However, the short-term drivers are believed to focus more on solving internal challenges, such as improving data warehousing, increasing loyalty and customer experience management".

"The research also shows that 72% of current Big Data implementations are focused on specific business applications rather than on an end-to-end solution .. Big Data currently represents 10% on average of their total IT budget. This share is expected to increase to approximately 23% in five years, demonstrating how Big Data is becoming a strategic priority for the telecoms operators"

See "48% of operators say they are already implementing Big Data" - here.

[Survey]: Mobile SDN on the Fast Track - 50% to Implement in 2 Years

A new survey [130 completed responses received from mobile, converged and fixed operators] by Informa Telecoms & Media (sponsored by Juniper Networks)  finds that ".. momentum is building rapidly for mobile software-defined-network (SDN) technology among operators worldwide .. operators consider mobile SDN to be a critical technology for the future of networks: Ninety-three percent of operator respondents expect SDN to be implemented in mobile within five years, and half expect it to be implemented in the next one to two years.

The survey also found that LTE and LTE-Advanced deployments are expected to be the biggest drivers of mobile SDN adoption, and adoption is expected to be led by developed markets in North America (primarily the US) and Asia Pacific (South Korea and Japan). Sixty-five percent of the mobile operator respondents expect infrastructure vendors to have the greatest ability to influence take-up of mobile SDN".

See "Half of mobile operators globally expect mobile SDN implementation by 2015, and 93% expect it within five years" - here.

[Informa]: Where is the Money in Growing Streaming Video?

A recent research by Guillermo Escofet (pictured), Senior Analyst, Informa Telecoms & Media finds that "Streaming has become the most popular way of consuming video on phones. But not in the way operators had hoped for – through their mobile TV offerings – but through user-generated video clips on free video-sharing sites, primarily YouTube .. No direct end-user revenue is generated from most mobile-video streaming, yet it is the single biggest drain on cellular-network capacity (if all cellular-connected devices are included)".

"Informa nevertheless expects that the opportunity for monetization in video streaming will grow as more paid-for VoD, TV streaming and locker services enter the market. Video-streaming traffic is predicted to increasingly yield more direct end-user revenue, even though most usage will remain free. As fig. 3 shows [below] , revenues will grow at a faster rate than users"

"Some operators are continuing to launch services in this space, however. Spanish incumbent Telefonica, for example, in January extended its DSL-pay TV service, Movistar Imagenio, to mobile via the Imagenio Movil app on BlackBerry devices. Integrated with the BlackBerry’s instant messaging service, BBM, the app streams live content from more than 20 TV channels at a starting price of €2.50 (US$3.26) a month". 

"In Canada, meanwhile, operator Rogers Wireless also extended its digital TV service to mobile with an iPad app that includes 20 channels, streamed for free to selected customers".

See "Video will hog a third of handset traffic but earn less than 1% of end-user mobile data revenue" - here.

Survey: 98% of MNOs Believe Small Cells are Essential

According to a recent report by Dimitris Mavrakis (pictured), principal analyst, Informa Telecoms & Media a survey shows that ".. 98% of mobile operator respondents believe small cells are essential for the future of their networks .. There are now 46 small-cell deployments by operators, including nine of the top 10 operators by revenue globally .. 55% of the mobile operator respondents are most interested in public access deployments over the next 12 months followed by enterprise rollouts with 35% of responses. Almost half (49%) of operators said their greatest concern surrounding outdoor metro deployments are the planning issues (e.g., finding suitable sites, power, etc), followed by backhaul challenges – cited by 35%".

"Almost all the survey respondents believe that LTE will be the biggest technology driver for small-cell deployments over the next five years although interest in LTE-A is growing. The survey also found that Wi-Fi was deemed to be complementary to small cells with deployments of both expected to take place in parallel".

See "98% of Mobile Operators Say Small Cells Essential for Future of Networks" - here.

[Informa]: "PCC is at the heart of NG mobile data services BUT .. "

A new report by Peter Dykes (pictured), Senior Analyst, Informa Telecoms & Media concludes that "Policy control in combination with online charging is at the heart of next-generation mobile data services and, although the possibilities are well understood, there are still substantial challenges to be met. The enabling technologies are now well-developed, however, implementation and standards issues need to be resolved before all of the revenue-generating opportunities can be fully exploited".

Related post - "BroadForward CEO: "We have a very ambitious 5 year growth plan" - here.

See "Policy-driven online charging: The key to monetizing mobile data?" - here.

[Informa, Ovum]: How can MNOs Stop Revenues Lost to OTT Voice and Messaging?

 
Allot showed us the huge growth in VoIP traffic (114% in 2nd half of 2011 - here) - what does it mean, and what could be done about it?

A recent report from Ovum shows the hard numbers - "New estimates from Ovum indicate that consumers’ increasing use of IP-based social messaging (messaging that occurs through platforms other than SMS, MMS, or email, and which is either tied to a social network or has a social component attached) services on their smartphones cost telecom operators $8.7bn in lost SMS revenues in 2010, and $13.9bn in 2011".

Informa research concludes that "Operators must provide internet-style communication services to remain relevant to customers and to challenge the OTT services which are beginning to erode voice and text revenues .. In 2012 the increase in smartphone penetration will cause voice and messaging revenue erosion of 3.9% and 1.6% in Western and Eastern Europe respectively .. Operators are implementing a combination of five different strategies in order to face up to the OTT-communication threat".

Dario Talmesio (pictured) principal analyst, Informa said: “Unfortunately for them, most of these strategies are short-sighted as too much emphasis is given to fighting OTT rather than satisfying their customers .. Operators wanting to remain relevant to their customers need to give them internet-style communication services, as voice and messaging as we know it will soon be a thing of the past.”


Neha Dharia (pictured), consumer analyst at Ovum said: “Operators must remain open to partnering with app developers, sharing end-user data with them and allowing integration with the user’s social connections. Working closely with handset vendors will also be important; they control some of the most popular social messaging apps, and can also provide preloaded applications. The most important factor, however, will be co-operation between telcos. They are no longer competing merely among themselves, but must work together to face the challenge from the major Internet players”

See "Operators need clear strategy to combat free web-based apps such as WhatsApp" - here and "Ovum estimates that operators lost $13.9bn in 2011 due to social messaging" - here.

See more on OTT traffic monetization from Yankee Group (here and here), Dean Bubley,  ABI Research and TDG,

Resource: Policy Control - Architecture and Implementation

 
A week ago I posted a short video providing an overview of PCRF (here). A more advanced review of policy management architecture and interfaces with OSS and enforcement elements can be found in an article by Peter Dykes (pictured), Senior Analyst, Informa Telecoms & Media.

In addition to the technical review - the architecture of policy management, how it is implemented (see chart below), and why it is needed (to make more money, in short), Peter provides a viewpoint of the subject, of which the first points are "The implementation of policy control in mobile networks could be a major milestone for operators looking to reconcile the disparity between increasing data traffic volumes and flat data revenues" and "As happened with DPI, once the usefulness of the technology becomes clear, it will no longer be enough to offer a stand-alone policy management product; it will have to come with some sort of front end, such as charging, marketing or traffic management"

See "Policy control: Bridging the gap between rising data traffic and flat revenues" - here.

The Winners of Broadband Traffic Management Awards are…

 
The Broadband Traffic Management Congress (held this week in London - not to be confused with this blog..) announced the winners of its new award program in several traffic management categories. 

"The Awards were established to celebrate and give recognition to some of the achievements made by those in the traffic management industry. These prestigious Awards give winners and shortlisted companies a mark of quality, innovation and leadership" (here).

The awards were" independently judged by"

• Aditya Kaul, Mobile Practice Director, ABI Research
• Terry Norman, Principal Analyst, Analysis Mason
• Graham Finnie, Chief Analyst, Heavy Reading
• Peter Dykes,Senior Analyst, Informa Telecoms & Media
• Susan McNeice (pictured), Vice President, Yankee Group
• Steven Hartley, Principal Analyst, Telco Strategy, Ovum

Below is the winners list, together with links to related posts in this blog.

Congratulations for all winners!

Category	Awarded to ..	Related posts
Best integration of traffic management into OSS/BSS architectures	Comptel	X
Best content optimization tool for managing Traffic on Mobile Networks	Vantrix	X X X
Most effective solution for integrating RAN-awareness into policy management	Alcatel-Lucent	X X
Best mobile offload solution for enhancing customer experience	Aptilo	X
Most innovative new service launch enabled by traffic management	Huawei  (Megafon project)	X
Best use of traffic management for improving customer experience	Orga Systems	X X
Best implementation of tiered data pricing	Sandvine	X X X X

Telefonica/Movistar Leads CALA’s Trend of Pricing by Application

  

Daniele Tricarico (pictured) reports from Informa’s Mobile VAS CALA event in Miami about new pricing models in Latin America:

"..Pricing by app is already starting in CALA with Telefonica taking the lead. Colombia was the first market  where the Spanish group launched  the ”paquetes de internet”, a number of social media, mobile email and Internet packages that range in price according to the amount of services a subscriber wants access to. A speaker from Movistar Chile at the event confirmed that this is the trend – evolving from access per MB and per hour to access per application – and anticipated that the “paquetes” will be soon extended to the Andean country".

See "Price discrimination by app is a hot topic at Mobile VAS CALA"  - here.

  

Telefonica uses Sandvine's DPI solutions (see "Sandvine Exposes Telefonica/O2 Use Cases" - here mentioning that "Telefonica recently introduced a menu of tiered pricing plans that accommodate subscribers' personalized network usage patterns and budgets ).  

Operators Views on Tiered Pricing

      

Mobile Europe held a round table on tiered pricing during the recent MWC event hosting Tanya Field, Telefonica UK (also in "Telefonica: "Pricing for Optimized Service should be based on QoS" - here), I- wireless (US MVNO), Mark Newman, Chief Research Officer, Informa and Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO of Redknee that hosted the event. Once more, it seems that the trend is into more sophisticated pricing than the simple volume tiers. According to the participants customers like the new ideas!

See "Tiered Pricing Roundtable with Redknee" - here and video below.

Policy Management: What Does Telefonica Need Now?

  

Peter Dykes, Senior Analyst, Informa Telecom summarizes his conclusions from the recent Broadband Traffic Management Event (here).

"Obviously the focus of the event was based around traffic management, but a complete day was themed to issues around the use of policy .. The change however, is that a move toward more service-oriented applications for PCRF is happening . .. Operators such as Telefonica [see "Telefónica Group Selects Acision/Tekelec" - here and  "Telefónica O2 [Czech Republic] Cleans the Internet with NSN" - here] told delegates at the event that along with the need to manage a massive growth in demand for video, there was also increasing demand for in-line services such as parental control, optimization and security. ..  Huawei for its Russian customer Megafon [here]. In the case of Megafon, as it moved to an all-IP network, the operator was faced with growing data traffic and the fear of becoming a dumb pipe for other people’s content".

See "Realizing the value of policy control" - here.

".. in informal discussions between conference sessions, it became clear that in markets where smart devices such as the iPhone and where dongle usage is low because few people have laptops, policy control is perceived as differentiating technology. Apart from offering superior control of vast numbers of pre-paid customers in comparison to the traditional IN approach, these operators are looking with relish at implementing more effective loyalty campaigns and discounting in markets which are notoriously susceptible to high rates of churn".

See also:

• B/OSS 2011 Trends: Embracing OTT and Integrated Policy Management - here
• Openet: Recent Trends in Policy Management - here
• Infonetics Research: Policy Servers Market to reach $471M in 2010 ; Bandwidth Management is the leading Driver - here 

 

  

 

Informa: "Online-video boom will lead to collaboration between ISPs and content providers"

   

A recent research from Informa telecoms & media concludes that "Initiatives by broadcasters, Internet firms and consumer electronics giants to bring online video to the TV screen threaten to place unprecedented stress on broadband networks. This growing congestion could cause problems for the quality of video services, but merely throwing bandwidth at the problem may not address some of the fundamental challenges they pose," comments Rob Gallagher, principal analyst for Informa Telecoms & Media.

See "Online-video boom will lead to collaboration between ISPs and content providers" - here.

"Based on our recent research, it's clear that the ISPs need to collaborate with content providers. Rather than complain about the bandwidth burden, ISPs can provide their own video services over the top of rivals' networks, integrate popular third-party ones into their TV offerings and develop new wholesale products to support rather than throttle video traffic," Gallagher adds. "Network operators in particular can take advantage of the online video boom by providing so-called content delivery network services to video providers behind the scenes."

A nice recommendation for the ISP/OTT conflict around Net Neutrality..

See also - "The Economist: Data Mobile Operators Should Adopt "Smart Pipe" strategy" - here