l love this YouTube video by Corning. l love the future-thinking in relation to how we will interact with the spaces around us. l love the way they've turned a blank canvas like our sliding mirror door into an interactive panel. Did you notice the touch panel at around 2:40 into the video? Do you have any ideas for how something like this could be used…
Read More »"The second question to ask is: can existing assets be reused or recycled? In other words, can the investment be deferred? One of the most common claims used to support an investment case is that the investment is necessary because the network is congested. This is often correct; capacity upgrades are a fact of life for all operators. But it’s also true that operators regularly have…
Read More »Redknee to Acquire Orga Systems. Redknee Solutions announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Orga Systems for a total cash consideration of €38M. Orga’s technology and expertise will enhance Redknee’s real-time monetization and subscriber management platform for communication service providers and the Internet of Things (IoT). Orga Systems provides monetization solutions to more than 45 customers in the communications, automotive, energy, and…
Read More »"There are two questions to ask during the capex planning process that get to the heart of the issue. First, should a particular investment be made at all? The majority of operators have a long tail of marginally profitable—or downright unprofitable—products, networks, customers, channels and segments. A request for additional investment in such assets is an obvious point at which to consider terminating, migrating or consolidating…
Read More »“In our company there’s still a bit of the ‘build and customers will come’ mentality, but those days are gone. If we build the wrong thing in the wrong place or at the wrong price, the customers won’t follow. So, rather than letting technology drive our capex decisions, we need to adopt a more commercial approach.” An un-named executive in this report. Are you surprised by…
Read More »Huawei and Ascom Agree to Cooperate Under the OSS Interoperability Initiative (OSSii). Huawei announced that it has signed an agreement with Ascom to license its network infrastructure interfaces for integration with Ascom TEMS Discovery network optimization products. The agreement ensures that Huawei will provide full support to Ascom TEMS Discovery for their integration with the relevant Huawei products. The agreement between Huawei and Ascom is in…
Read More »"As Figure 1 (below) shows, global capex levels have soared from just over US$50 billion to about US$325 billion in real terms over the past 30 years...Yet this massive investment isn’t producing the returns the industry requires... the telecoms industry is at an inflexion point. It’s spending lots of money on new infrastructure, but it’s not optimising returns. Most telecoms executives admit as much; they say…
Read More »"Are your colleagues in Marketing, IT, Networks or Finance frustrated with how your company’s capex is allocated, how that capex is controlled or the performance it delivers?" Report entitled, "We need to talk about CAPEX - Benchmarking best practice in telecom capital allocation." In Friday's blog, I posed a series of questions about OSS and whether they pull their weight in terms of providing a Telco…
Read More »Swisscom Launches Strategic Initiative for Migration to Cloud-Based Applications and Virtualized Infrastructure with NEC and NetCracker. NEC Corporation and NetCracker Technology have announced that Swisscom AG has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NEC and NetCracker as a part of its major cloud-based transformation. NEC and NetCracker will assist Swisscom to transform its business to a full cloud environment by jointly developing next-generation IT solutions,…
Read More »"...in a capital intensive industry like telecom, the key metric is return on capital, especially when that industry turns ex-growth. Revenue, EBITDA and cash are useful interim steps along the way, but the ultimate end-point is ROI. It’s not a clever conclusion, but it’s not the consensus conclusion either. Unfortunately, such basic principles have gotten buried in daily practices that shift focuses elsewhere. ROI is rarely…
Read More »A new category has now been created here on PAOSS for bundling Executive Series posts. I'll be looking to expand on this with some new executive-centric posts in coming weeks. OSS are tools have a big part to play in modern ICT organisations. They can make the difference between effective or ineffective operations of electronic assets. The Executive Series of blogs provide information that is targeted…
Read More »Thailand's CAT Telecom Selects Elitecore's BSS Platform to Enable MVNE Strategy. Elitecore Technologies, a leading global provider of Next-generation BSS and Packet Core solution announces that, Thailand based CAT Telecom, a leading Tier 1 Telecom Operator and Suvitech a Thailand based IT Solutions and Service Company, have selected Elitecore's end-to-end pre-integrated BSS stack to enable their Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) strategy in Thailand. Under this…
Read More »"Thomas Edison devoted ten years and all of his money to developing the nickel alkaline storage battery at a time when he was almost penniless. Through that period of time, his record and film production company was supporting the storage battery effort. Then one night the terrifying cry of 'Fire' echoed through the film plant. Spontaneous combustion had ignited some chemicals. Within moments all of the…
Read More »"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope." John Buchan. Yesterday's story about vendors building irreplaceable staff reminded me of another sticky BSS story. A very big carrier I knew had a very complex billing process. It required a variety of custom scripts to pull pulleys and switch levers during a…
Read More »"Welcome those big, sticky, complicated problems. In them are your most powerful opportunities." Ralph Marston. In previous blogs such as, "The marriage analogy" and "If people like you," I've spoken about the perils of vendor lock-in. But today, I've decided to play out the polar opposite perspective for the purpose of curiosity. Please take a moment to think about these two questions: Which companies are the biggest,…
Read More »Vast Broadband Completes Phase 1 of Multi-Year BSS Managed Services Deal. NetCracker Technology announced that Vast Broadband, formerly known as Clarity Telecom, has gone live with the NetCracker Revenue Management solution, which it will use through a multi-year hosted managed services arrangement. Vast Broadband, which was recently rebranded from Clarity Telecom, is a cable operator providing high-speed Internet, television and digital voice services to residential and…
Read More »"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!" Dr. Seuss. As OSS architects, we often find ourselves drawing network diagrams and customer service diagrams don't we? When you draw such drawings, do you tend to draw the customer infrastructure on the left and the core network on the right, or vice versa?…
Read More »Schurz Communications Deploys NetCracker Platform to Standardize Billing and Rating Operations Across Properties. NetCracker Technology announced that Schurz Communications has agreed to expand its relationship with NetCracker by establishing a standardized business process across all of its properties through a single NetCracker Billing and Revenue Management solution. Schurz Communications is a full-service communications provider based out of Indiana, offering cable services across Arizona, Florida, Indiana and…
Read More »"Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." Mike Tyson. The great thing about Engineers is the solution is always black and white. It has to be perfect or it's not complete. Well, I'm a qualified Engineer, but I'm not qualified to be an Engineer by these generalisations. You're probably sick of hearing me talk about the Pareto Principle in OSS - where…
Read More »"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after." J.R.R. Tolkien. As reported last week, my latest publication (The Changing Landscape of OSS) was launched. When approached about writing a report about next generation OSS concepts many months ago, I was excited by the idea…
Read More »"If you were able to shrink the Earth to the size of a billiard ball, it would be the smoothest sphere ever created. Hard to believe this if you live near the edge of the Grand Canyon." Seth Godin here. Great analogy above from Seth. The same goes for data. We're constantly hearing about Big Data, but in a recent article entitled, "Minimum Viable Data (MVD),"…
Read More »