“Global telecommunications study: navigating the road to 2020.”
In the study listed above, executives at some of the world’s largest CSPs indicate that the players most likely to disrupt their industry is OTT app providers.
Any thoughts on why they might be perceived to be 30x more influential than technology specialists, or 5x more influential than cable/satellite operators?
My take is that it’s because OTT app providers are giving customers the tools that they value highly. OTT app providers deal in software, which allows them to innovate, test and pivot quickly to adapt to feedback from the market.
OSS are also software platforms. With the right ecosystems, they could theoretically allow customers to also innovate, test and pivot quickly to adapt to market conditions. But alas, few do. Most actually hinder, rather than help their customers to evolve because they are so big and complex, the change management process tends to be glacial and holds up other parts of the business.
But the stars are definitely starting to align in the world of IT. The containerised, modular, microservice, building blocks of a small-grid OSS are gaining momentum and sophistication..A much more nimble OSS model is sure to arrive on the market and disrupt the less flexible existing architectures.
Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualisation (SDN/NFV) are initiatives driven by service providers to give them more flexibility and speed in their network platforms, as well as control over development direction. OSS will follow the same route.