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KCOM partners with Amdocs

Amdocs to provide KCOM with a service delivery platform offering capabilities for next generation networks including flexible bandwidth, time-bound bandwidth and SD-WAN services. Amdocs announced that KCOM, a leading provider of communications, applications and integration services to the UK enterprise and consumer market, has selected an Amdocs service delivery platform to enhance its new next generation network infrastructure. Amdocs will provide a new orchestration platform that…

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12/05/2018 No Comments

Vivo expands with Netcracker

Vivo Expands Netcracker's Service Management as Part of Large-Scale Digital Transformation. Netcracker Technology announced that Vivo, Telefónica Group’s Brazilian subsidiary, has upgraded and expanded its use of Netcracker’s Service Management solution. The solution will help Vivo standardize provisioning and activation for all B2B and B2C mobile services. Vivo is the leading communications service provider in Brazil, delivering fixed-line and mobile voice, television and internet broadband services…

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12/05/2018 No Comments

ZTE stops operating activities and suspends trading

As a result of an export denial order by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), ZTE has opted to cease all major operating activities and trading of shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The ban on ZTE comes as a result of selling products to Iran. It prevents ZTE from purchasing components (eg semiconductors), software (eg licensed components of Android…

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11/05/2018 No Comments

How to run an OSS PoC

This is the third in a series describing the process of finding the right OSS solution for your specific needs and getting estimated pricing to help you build a business case. The first post described the overall OSS selection process we use. The second described the way we poll the market and prepare a short-list of OSS products / vendors based on current capabilities. Once you've…

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10/05/2018 No Comments

Telefónica Spain transforms DCs with Nuage

Telefónica Spain transforms its data centers with Nokia high-performance routing and Nuage Networks Virtualized Cloud Services. Nokia and its venture focused on software-defined networking (SDN), Nuage Networks, are partnering with Telefónica Spain to build an open, elastic and highly secure data center network infrastructure, dramatically expanding the agility, scale and efficiency of its cloud-based services. A key part of Telefónica's cloud vision is to offer enterprises…

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09/05/2018 No Comments

How to identify a short-list of best-fit OSS suppliers for you

In yesterday's post, we talked about how to estimate OSS pricing. One of the key pillars of the approach was to first identify a short-list of vendors / integrators best-suited to implementing your specific OSS, then working closely with them to construct a pricing model. Finding the right vendor / integrator can be a complex challenge. There are dozens, if not hundreds of OSS / BSS…

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09/05/2018 No Comments

Bouygues Telecom extends with Netcracker

Bouygues Telecom Selects Netcracker's Revenue Management Solution in its Drive Toward Convergence. Netcracker Technology announced that the French operator Bouygues Telecom has extended its use of Netcracker’s Revenue Management solution. Bouygues Telecom already uses Netcracker’s solution for its mobile subscribers and plans to use the platform for fixed-line subscribers in Fall 2018. As part of this initiative, Netcracker delivered an upgraded Revenue Management solution to Bouygues…

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08/05/2018 No Comments

Nokia acquires SpaceTime Insight

Nokia acquires SpaceTime Insight to expand its IoT software portfolio and accelerate vertical application development. Nokia has acquired SpaceTime Insight to expand its Internet of Things (IoT) portfolio and IoT analytics capabilities, and accelerate the development of new IoT applications for key vertical markets. Based in San Mateo, California, with offices in the U.S., Canada, U.K., India and Japan, SpaceTime Insight provides machine learning-powered analytics and…

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08/05/2018 No Comments

Getting a price estimate for your OSS

"Sometimes a simple question deserves a simple answer: “A piece of string is twice as long as half its length”. This is a brilliant answer… if you have its length... Without a strategy, how do you know if it is successful? It might be prettier, but is it solving a define business problem, saving or making money, or fulfilling any measurable goals? In other words: can…

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08/05/2018 No Comments

Using OSS/BSS to steer the ship

For network operators, our OSS and BSS touch most parts of the business. The network, and the services they carry, are core business so a majority of business units will be contributing to that core business. As such, our OSS and BSS provide many of the metrics used by those business units. This is a privileged position to be in. We get to see what indicators…

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07/05/2018 No Comments

Vertel launches Nuage SD-WAN

Vertel launches SD-WAN services from Nuage Networks to organizations across Australia. Vertel and Nuage Networks, Nokia's software defined network (SDN) venture, will work together to launch software defined WAN (SD-WAN) services for Vertel's government, enterprise and service provider customers in July this year. Once deployed, Vertel will be one of the first providers in Australia to offer seamless, cloud-connected WAN services, with its customers enjoying all…

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06/05/2018 No Comments

Operator involvement on OSS projects

"You cannot simply have your end users give some specifications then leave while you attempt to build your new system. They need to be involved throughout the process. Ultimately, it is their tool to use." José Manuel De Arce here. As an OSS consultant and implementer, I couldn't agree more with José's quote above. José, by the way is an OSS Manager at Telefónica, so he…

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04/05/2018 No Comments

Have I got an OSS deal for you!?!

Tending to be a low-volume, high-customisation, high-uniqueness product, OSS has a significantly different selling proposition than most "box drop" products. Can you imagine if OSS salespeople used any of these "great deal" propositions (as described by Gary Halbert)? "I'm going out of business." "I just had a fire and I'm having a fire sale." "I'm crazy." (all used car dealers) "I owe taxes and I've got…

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02/05/2018 No Comments

The Goldilocks OSS story

We all know the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears where Goldilocks chooses the option that's not too heavy, not too light, but just right. The same model applies to OSS - finding / building a solution that's not too heavy, not too light, but just right. To be honest, we probably tend to veer towards the too heavy, especially over time. We put more…

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01/05/2018 No Comments

Netcracker extends Billing and CRM with Charter

Netcracker Extends Billing and CRM Relationship With Charter. Netcracker Technology announced that Charter Communications has executed a long-term extension of its BSS and professional services relationship with Netcracker as part of its large-scale standardization program. Charter, the second largest cable service provider in the United States which operates under the Spectrum brand, provides services to more than 25 million business and residential customers across the country.…

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30/04/2018 No Comments

Are today’s platform benefits tomorrow’s constraints?

One of the challenges facing OSS / BSS product designers is which platform/s to tie the roadmap to. Let's use a couple of examples. In the past, most outside plant (OSP) designs were done in AutoCAD, so it made sense to build OSP design tools around AutoCAD. However in making that choice, the OSP developer becomes locked into whatever product directions AutoCAD chooses in future. And…

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30/04/2018 No Comments

Powerful ranking systems with hidden variables

"There are ratings and rankings that ostensibly exist to give us information (and we are supposed to use that information to change our behavior). But if we don't know what variables matter, how is it supposed to be useful? Just because it can be easily measured with two digits doesn't mean that it's accurate, important or useful. [Marketers learned a long time ago that people love…

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27/04/2018 No Comments

SK Telecom to provide blockchain-based asset management service

SKT to provide blockchain-based asset management service Courtesy of the Korea Herald. SK Telecom will provide an asset management service by using blockchain technologies within this year, and build a platform that will help match blockchain startups with investors for growth of the techs and related industry, the mobile carrier’s blockchain unit head said Tuesday. Oh Se-hyeon, executive vice president of SKT’s blockchain business unit, said…

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26/04/2018 No Comments

Training network engineers to code, not vice versa

Did any of you read the Light Reading link in yesterday's post about Google creating automated network operations services? If you haven't, it's well worth a read. If you did, then you may've also noticed a reference to Finland's Elisa selling its automation smarts to other telcos. This is another interesting business model disruption for the OSS market, although I'll reserve judgement on how disruptive it…

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24/04/2018 No Comments

Merkator acquires NetworkMining

Merkator acquires NetworkMining. Merkator nv/sa, a geospatial asset management solution provider, announced the acquisition of NetworkMining nv/sa, an independent supplier of IP & Optical Network Mediation Software for Communication Service Providers & Utilities. For more than a decade, NetworkMining has been recognized as a specialist in IP/optical mediation and inventory software and as such will bolster Merkator's expertise and portfolio of Telco & Utilities solutions. Merkator…

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24/04/2018 No Comments

Automated Network Operations as a Service (ANOaaS)

"Google has started applying its artificial intelligence (AI) expertise to network operations and expects to make its tools available to companies building virtual networks on its global cloud platform. That could be a troubling sign for network technology vendors such as Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), which now see AI in the network environment as a potential differentiator…

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23/04/2018 No Comments