As we move into the latter half of January, our thoughts are already turning to what for many in our industry is one of the event highlights of the year. I am of course referring to Mobile World Congress, which takes place this year from 22-25 February.
Yet aside from a few days in the beautiful city of Barcelona and the opportunity to catch up with colleagues past and present, what does MWC really provide in return for the sizeable investment - both in time and money - that many OSS/BSS companies make in attending this event every year?
Half of the world’s population will be using mobile devices to access the internet by 2020. It is calculated that there were 2.2 billion mobile internet subscribers in 2013, representing approximately 30 per cent of the global population. GSMA Intelligence forecasts that an additional To Expand or not1.6 billion citizens worldwide will become mobile internet users over the next six years, bringing the total number to 3.8 billion, or around half of the world’s expected population in 2020…
Cloud services are everywhere and the notion of “putting it in the cloud” has become an easy answer for sales people and service providers alike when asked how best to offer critical applications and data to customers and increase revenue. But there is nothing easy about the cloud. It’s not easy for operators, it’s not easy for IT, and it’s not easy for customers. The promise of cloud is supposed to be simplicity. No ownership concerns, no licensing issues, no maintenance headaches – cloud services are supposed to be as pleasant as the white puffy variety that we see floating by on a summer day. But we’re not there yet. One challenge that operators face when deploying platforms on which to build and deliver cloud services is that each instance often includes its own product catalog, creating a cloud silo that flies in the face of the rationalization of OSS/BSS solutions and data that has been underway for the past 10 years.
Data drives decision-making and it drives a lot of the services we all consume… It’s a simple example: By publishing the data it allows everyone inside the city and outside to go in and add intelligence and services on top of it. Los Angeles is now rated the number one open data city in the country”. – Peter Marx, Chief Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles.
On the eve of Mobile World Congress, we’re preparing to hear tales of LTE deployment and mobile network convergence as we navigate the new venue and get lost among the endless rows of exhibits. Operators are nearly unanimous in their belief that LTE is an opportunity for a fresh start. 3G was a rapid response to unanticipated data demand but 4G and LTE – well that’s a different story. So surely operators cannot contemplate a fresh start without considering OSS. Once the design, deployment, testing, and acceptance of the network is completed – then what?
There is still a wide-held belief among many people in this industry that today’s communications service providers (CSPs) will fail because they will be unable to provide value to the end user in this new digital economy. But in fact the opposite is true. CSPs are evolving precisely in order to grasp the opportunities that the digital economy and this digital life will provide.
There is still a wide-held belief among many people in this industry that today’s communications service providers (CSPs) will fail because they will be unable to provide value to the end user in this new digital economy. But in fact the opposite is true. CSPs are evolving precisely in order to grasp the opportunities that the digital economy and this digital life will provide.