"If it's small and reversible then it's an experiment. If not, it's a commitment." Author unknown but revered. With our traditional, monolithic OSS there don't tend to be many changes that are small and reversible unless you are controlling the code and its development. We always seem to do things on a grand scale! We spoke recently about how data does readily allow for experimentation. We've…
Read More »Huawei and Red Hat successfully complete agile integration tests for multiple vendors to accelerate NFV development. Huawei and Red Hat announced that they have completed the first phase of agilely integrating multiple vendors' MBB architectures by adopting Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) technologies. As part of this partnership, Huawei and Red Hat have successfully conducted high performance LTE tests in heavy-traffic scenarios in NFV/Software-defined networking (SDN) Open…
Read More »"My other observation is that in most cases one side of the [supply and demand] marketplace comes much more easily than the other. On Lexoo supply comes more easily whereas on Appear Here, a marketplace for short term lets on the High Street demand is the easier side. The trick then is to build the easy side to make the marketplace super attractive for the more…
Read More »"This Network Intent Composition project will enable the controller to manage and direct network services and network resources based on describing the “Intent” for network behaviors and network policies. Intents are described to the controller through a new NorthBound Interface, which provides generalized and abstracted policy semantics instead of Openflow-like flow rules. The Intent based NBI allows for a descriptive way to get what is desired…
Read More »"...the more data you cross-link into a chain, the more likely you are to have broken chains." The diagram above provides a visual perspective on yesterday's blog. Circuit Level 1 shows the minimum data that allows the service activation to occur (although it relies on all of the infrastructure to be set up prior). The downside is that there isn't much information available for assurance purposes.…
Read More »"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." Salvador Dali. The heading for today's blog sounds ridiculous doesn't it? How could the pursuit of perfection be detrimental to my customers (and many organisations in OSS that have not been my customers yet)? It's not so much the pursuit of perfection, but the expectation of perfection that causes all the problems. As Engineers and problem…
Read More »OSS/BSS Market Being Reshaped With Emergence of Convergent Billing Systems, to Post 12.7% CAGR From 2014-2020: Transparency Market Research. As companies pump investments into customer service platforms, OSS/BSS will lay claim to a sizeable chunk of these investments, helping the global OSS/BSS market to be worth US$ 49.78 billion by 2020. This is one of the key findings of Transparency Market Research's report titled 'OSS/BSS Market…
Read More »"What I'm suggesting is that we define services in a series of hierarchical modeling steps, with each step based on an intent model that offers a from-the-consumer-side abstraction of the service/feature being defined. For network services and features, we could assume the model had a standard structure, which defined FUNCTIONAL-PROPERTIES for the model, and INTERFACES that allow for connection of models or to users. The FUNCTIONAL-PROPERTIES…
Read More »"I generally look at Google as a vast machine learning engine that’s been stuffed with data for a decade and a half. Everything that Google does is about reach for that underlying engine - reach to get data in and reach to surface it out. The legacy web search is just one expression of that, and so is the search advertising, and so are Gmail and…
Read More »VimpelCom’s Beeline Deploys Amdocs Customer Management to Improve Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency. Amdocs announced that PJSC VimpelCom (Beeline™), one of the largest service providers in Russia, has successfully deployed an Amdocs customer management solution that improves call-center agent efficiency across the country. As a result, Beeline can increase satisfaction and retention rates of its more than 59 million mobile and fixed-line broadband customers throughout Russia.…
Read More »SKY Television Expands Relationship with NetCracker to Optimize Billing and Customer Experience. NetCracker Technology announced that SKY Television, the leading satellite pay-TV provider in New Zealand, entered into an agreement to expand the NetCracker Billing and Revenue Management solution and form a 7-year strategic partnership for professional services with NetCracker. This will enable SKY to bring more innovative offers to market and establish a more customer-centric…
Read More »Redknee and Elster to Offer End-to-End Prepay Energy Solution. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced its partnership with Elster, a market leader in Smart Grid and Energy Management Solutions. This strategic agreement is to deliver an end-to-end prepayment solution for the utilities sector that combines the Redknee Connected Suite for smart utility billing and Elster’s smart grid software solutions. The joint offering will be available across the Asian,…
Read More »"Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or emotional appeal." Marilyn Ferguson. lt's an exciting time for spatially-based OSS. The tools that underpin them such as GIS and CAD have moved off the desktop and onto mobile devices. Sensor networks, geo-positioning and augmented reality technologies are also…
Read More »Sri Lanka Telecom Goes Live with NetCracker Integrated Revenue Management, Interconnect and Active Mediation Solutions. NetCracker Technology announced that Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the leading ICT solutions provider and the National Backbone operator in Sri Lanka, has gone live with upgraded NetCracker Revenue Management, Interconnect and Mediation solutions. The upgraded NetCracker Revenue Management solution will provide Sri Lanka Telecom with a number of unique benefits, including…
Read More »"They (OSS) CAN allow a CSP to be more nimble. They CAN allow a CSP to deliver business insights to customers in real-time. They CAN add significant value to a CSP's customers. But for any number of reasons, the OSS that most telcos implement AREN'T nimble, insightful or small-business enablers." In yesterday's blog on "Peak Telco" we posed some of the challenges facing the global telco…
Read More »When it comes to the industry of CSP (Communication Service Provision), success has always followed the organisations that enabled small business (and residential, corporate, government, etc too for that matter) to harness the power of the network effect. The invention of telephony, followed shortly thereafter by telephone networks, enabled telcos to ride the network effect to profitability, because telephony provided enormous business value that organisations were…
Read More »AccessKenya Chooses Procera Networks' PacketLogic Platform for Next Generation IT Services. Procera Networks, Inc., the global Subscriber Experience company and XON, the Pan-African ICT group, announced AccessKenya, the leading and most reliable converged Communication and IT infrastructure service provider in East Africa, has selected Procera's subscriber management solution to replace an incumbent installation and deliver next generation subscriber experience management solutions to meet the region's growing…
Read More »Ericsson to acquire the assets of Guatemala-based Icon Americas, a consulting and systems integration company. Ericsson intends to acquire the assets of Icon Americas, a Guatemala-based consulting and systems integration company. Icon Americas specializes in providing application development and maintenance (ADM) services - specifically in the area of billing and charging - to leading telecom operators. Approximately 250 employees and consultants are expected to join Ericsson.…
Read More »TalkTalk Modernizes Operations with CSG Solutions. CSG International announced that TalkTalk Group, one of the United Kingdom's leading broadband, landline, TV and mobile providers, has selected key components of CSG's Total Service Mediation and Wholesale Business Management Solution (WBMS) suites. TalkTalk will deploy the latest version of CSG Intermediate, CSG Interconnect including Dispute Manager, and CSG Route, replacing a combination of bespoke systems as well as…
Read More »"Everyone is familiar with a technology that can be useful for the verification of messages in SDN and NFV, but not in the form they'd expect. Bitcoin uses what's called "block chaining" or (as one word) "blockchain" to keep a tamper-proof history of something. One could apply blockchain principles to SDN and NFV interfaces or control elements to keep a log of everything that happened there,…
Read More »Maxis Transforms Service Layer with NetCracker's Comprehensive Resource and Service Management Suite. NetCracker Technology announced that it has successfully delivered its Resource & Inventory Management solution to Maxis Berhad (Maxis), Malaysia’s leading communications service provider. The upgraded modules include the NetCracker Framework, Resource Management & Service Management modules. These capabilities will help Maxis to achieve better network utilization, faster deployment of services and ROI on its…
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