Next Gen O/BSS can seize the Broadband opportunity for operators

                  The Wireline broadband connectivity is providing a host of new opportunities to every corner of the world. The high speed Internet has led to the spread of information at lightning speed, resulting in the development of knowledge societies, which eventually leads to a connected world and economic growth of any country. Modern day’s always-on wireline has replaced narrow band dial-up connections of the last decade. The data consumption, which was a few KBs of emails earlier have turned into GBs because of the introduction of digital video content and data hungry apps. Now users can download more content in the same amount of time and it is estimated that data traffic will see an almost tenfold increase by 2019 as per GSMA. And as per Infonetics – an independent telecom market research firm, it is projected that Fixed Broadband Subscribers will reach to 1 Billion by 2019. Even though increase in data consumption results into increase in business for ISP/Broadband Operators, their profit margins are constantly diminishing due to fierce competition in the market. Price is no longer a differentiator, they are under constant pressure to launch next gen services in order to increase their subscriber base and customer loyalty and reduce churn. Moreover, operators’ legacy systems further add to operators’ woes as they are not scalable, interoperable or support future services. On the other hand, the revenue from traditional voice and SMS services are dwindling and mobile operators are seeking new revenue streams, of which the home and enterprise broadband market forms a key component. This is where operators are compelled to modernize their O/BSS systems at the same pace. Here are a few examples where leading Tier 1 operators have followed the same route – O2 used the network of its parent company, Telefonica to provide broadband services to home and enterprise segment in Germany. Best Effort Services were launched by Vodacom that replaced xDSL with WiMAX technology to access enterprise and homes. As far as operators are concerned, they adopt any technology as per their requirement for last mile connectivity be it coaxial cable, two pair copper cable, fiber, HFC or over power lines; but their O/BSS systems should be aligned with user expectations. The O/BSS system applications should support automation to greatly increase system efficiency, reduce time to market and the manual workload to increase productivity. The system should support complex provisioning & real time activation of services through Customer Self Care App to enhance user experience. Moreover, looking at the trends, the system should also support Multi-tiered partner management. The digital transformation is almost the need of the hour to help improve customer experience and capitalize on the broadband opportunity.