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OUT OF NETWORK ASSETSWRINGING MAXIMUM VALUE
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QUICK INSIGHTS
2 0 1 1 | w w w . t m f o r u m . o r g
MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
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CLOUDSERVICES
QUICK INSIGHT
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Monetizing bandwidth:
Wringing maximum value out of network assets
©TeleManagement Forum 2011. The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, TM Forum. The views and opinions expressed by
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Page 4Executive summary
Page 6 Section 1Methods of monetizing bandwidth
Page 17Section 2
External influences and some conclusions
Page 21Sponsored featureOpenet
Report author:Tony PoulosBSS Evangelist, TM [email protected]
Managing Director, TM ForumInsights Research:Rob [email protected]
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Advisors:Keith Willetts, Chairman and ChiefExecutive Officer, TM Forum
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Nik Willetts, Senior Vice Presidentof Communications
Published by:TM Forum240 Headquarters Plaza
East Tower, 10th FloorMorristown, NJ 07960-6628USAwww.tmforum.orgPhone: +1 973-944-5100Fax: +1 973-944-5110
ISBN: 978-0-9838027-0-9
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MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
QUICK INSIGHTS
Analysts agree that broadband, particularly
mobile, is growing exponentially. It is almost
certain that mobile broadband adoption will
eclipse fixed broadband as early as 2011, and
reach more than 2 billion subscribers in the
next four years. Every C-level executive in
the communications industry is acutely aware
that unless broadband can be monetized
to increase revenues and provide return on
network investment, profits will suffer.
The continuing growth in the take-up of
mobile broadband has forced many operators
to invest in more spectrum, upgrade
networks, increase backhaul, establish
new and sometimes onerous peering
arrangements, and deploy greater access
to the Internet. In an attempt to control
traffic levels, they have moved from offering
unlimited plans to capped and tiered models,
but still revenues are not reaching the levels
needed for investment.
Long term evolution (LTE) is moving into its
first full year, and operators are putting tiered
pricing in place on these networks, in part to
reflect the fact data services differ in terms of
usage patterns, traffic and subscriber profiles.Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO, AT&T
Mobility and Consumer Markets states, “If
you didn’t have the networks, you wouldn’t
have the smartphones. If you didn’t have
the smartphones, you wouldn’t need the
applications. When you have all three, a
tsunami of change takes place that makes this
mobile broadband really a game-changer in our
life and in our workplaces.”
In addition, over the top (OTT) players
provide customers directly with applications
and services without the customers of
communications service providers (CSPs)
making any revenue from them or their
transport. Operators need to exploit their
multi-billion dollar investments in networks to
cope with the ‘data tsunami.’
To raise the average revenue per user
(ARPU), operators must move away from
basic subscription revenue, taking the
opportunity to differentiate themselves from
OTT providers and other third party vendors
by deploying intelligent, IP-based network
solutions.
Mobile bandwidth and the spectrum
supporting it are limited resources and CSPs
worldwide are looking at any means at their
disposal to monetize both. They are also
seeking to better monetize the services they
provide and to add new revenue-generating
services to their portfolios. Although this
report tends towards mobile network issues,
many of the options discussed could apply to
fixed broadband.
Telcordia puts it succinctly: “You can do the
math as to what that will mean in terms of
revenue growth. Two billion mobile broadbandusers – and the only reason they will want
to subscribe is that there will be must-have
applications and content to support them.
Somebody is going to supply it for them,
and that somebody is going to get paid
handsomely to do so, but with new business
models.”
The only way for CSPs to effectively
monetize bandwidth is to be able to measure,
monitor and manage network service quality
to maintain their customer base. Accenture
Executive summary
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Monetizing bandwithis a balancing act
describes this as a delicate balancing act:
managing network expenditures to keep costs
as low as possible, while also delivering the
customer experiences and service innovations
necessary to increase market share.
In Section 1, this report covers how
bandwidth can be monetized. In Section 2 it
examines the issues surrounding monetization
exercises, including network neutrality.
This Quick Insights report is based on the
executive roundtable session, Monetizing
broadband: Wringing maximum value out
of network investment , which took place at
Management World Americas 2010, held in
Orlando in November. The debate was lively
and wide-ranging, giving rise to many ideas and
opinions, most all of which are outlined here,
“The only way for CSPs to effectively monetize bandwidth is to be able to measure,
monitor and manage network service quality to maintain their customer base.”
as well as opinion and thought collected from
other TM Forum members and public forums.
A survey was carried out with roundtable
attendees before and after the event, and the
results are interspersed throughout. There were
some surprises, and variation in opinions before
and after the event, as the result of the debate.
TM Forum would like to thank all the senior
executives who attended for their time and
insights. In particular, we are grateful to Shira
Levine, directing analyst, Next Gen OSS and
Policy, Infonetics Research, for chairing the
session, and to provocateurs, John Aalbers,
Chief Executive Officer, Volubill and Brian Levy,
telecoms and broadcasting industry expert,
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer,
JRS Business Group, Juniper Networks.
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MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
QUICK INSIGHTS
Exposing assets to third parties
In the attendee surveys carried out before and
after the event, and at the roundtable itself,
exposing assets to third parties was deemed
the most likely way to benefit from monetizing
bandwidth.
Johanne Mayer, director, Alcatel-Lucent, sees
exposing network capabilities and providing
location data on mobile users as valuable
information that non-mobile operators could
not get, especially in real-time. Exposure of
business support systems (BSS) and operations
support systems (OSS) assets controlled by
communications service providers (CSPs) is
becoming increasingly valuable to any third party
provider keen to access it or sell it to end-users,
and something they would be willing to pay for.
Juniper Networks’ Brian Levy felt that the
OSS is basically looking at the network and in
future it will look beyond that to the systems
connected to the network. The definition of
the OSS is changing fundamentally. While in
the CSP’s domain, the operator can control
all its elements, but what happens when the
applications, content and services are being
delivered from outside the network? This will
happen increasingly, as exposure of these
capabilities to third parties is a serious revenue
opportunity for CSPs.
It was generally agreed that the separate
domains of IT and Network with CSPs aremerging and that BSS and OSS are heading that
way, too.
Mary Whatman, founding partner, Parhelion
Global Communications Advisors, says, “I don’t
see a problem, it’s a three-legged architecture
– network, aggregated and customer layers.
The network guys own the operators, but if
the trend is to spend money in other areas, the
network will become antiquated. The network
guys have no control over who uses the
network. Are the apps well designed? If they
Methods of monetizing bandwidth
Section 1
Figure 1-1: Where do you see the most opportunity for generating revenue from bandwidth?
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
‘ A l l y o u c a n
e a t p
l a n s ’
T i e r e
d o r c a p p e
d p
l a n s
C h a r g
i n g c o n
t e n t p r o v i d e r s
f o r
d e
l i v e r y o v e r t h
e n e
t w o r k
M o n
i t o r i n g a n
d c h a
r g i n g
O T T
a p p s p r o v i d e r s u s i n g t h
e n e
t w o r k
E x p o s i n g a s s e
t s t o t h i r d p a r t i e s ,
e . g .
S D P
, b i l l i n g ,
c u s t o m
e r p r o
fi l e s
C h a r g
i n g p e r
d o w n
l o a d
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i l d i n g a p p s
t h a t g e n e r a
t e n e
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t a t h a t c a n b
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A d v e r t i s e r - p a
y s m o
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“The definition of the OSS is changing fundamentally. While in the
CSP’s domain, the operator can control all its elements, but what
happens when the applications, content and services are being
delivered from outside the network?”
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are heavy network-users they should be
controlled somehow. We’ve made the network
dumber by extracting intelligence to a more
common network layer.
“If over the top (OTT) apps aren’t working
properly, the customer calls the operator listed
on the phone. OTT apps are not managed and
don’t have a QoS portion attached to them.
Somebody has to take ownership of the
problem. It’s the network operator spending
billions of dollars building the network that
is being used and abused by others. If they
don’t take ownership of the problem they will
struggle and suffer and ultimately sacrifice their
livelihood.”
Others saw the applications (see page 8) as
starting in the network layer. Service delivery
platforms (SDPs) are becoming more refined and
their capabilities more attractive to third parties.
There was some debate about who owns the
SDP and whether it is an engineering platform
or an IT platform, and that the engineers might
need greater understanding of applications, but
do not have app tools, processes or standards
to gain it.
On the other hand, the IT people might need
to become more like engineers as they head
into the network layers, but will organizational
structure support this new way of working?
Either way, the SDP could provide valuable
capabilities they do not have themselves.Perhaps the most valuable asset to offer is at
the heart of the CSP – the BSS, which handles
charging, billing and collections. Nobody does it
better than CSPs and for any third party to gain
access to the lucrative, pre-paid customer base,
it will have to work hand-in-hand with operators
and share the revenue.
While much is made of the advantages
operators have through their ownership of the
billing relationship, in a session at Management
World 2010, in May in Nice, France, Ovum
Operators needto take ownership
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Figure 1-2: Please rate the following business drivers for deploying solutions such
as policy management, charging, and subscriber data management
V i d e o o n
d e m a n
d
M o
b i l e b r o a d b a n
d
V
o I P
I P T V
N e
t w o r k
i n f r a s t r u c
t u r e u p g r a
d e s
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H S P A + , W
i M A X , L T E
A d v a n c e
d s u
b s c r
i b e r
c o n
t r o l c a p a b i l i
t i e s
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b i l e a d v e r t i s
i n g
T h i r d p a r t y c o n
t e n
t
O v e r - t h e - a i r p r o v i s i o n
i n g
B r o a d
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r e s o u r c e m a n a g e m
e n
t
B u s i n e s s s e r v i c
e s ,
i . e .
e v e n
t b r o a d c a s
t i n g
Very important
Somewhat important
Neither important or unimportant
Somewhat unimportant
Unimportant
pointed out that software developers were not
interested in operators’ billing systems. The
company carried out a survey of more than 240
application and software developers for themobile environment, and only 3 percent said they
wanted to work with an operator’s billing system.
CSPs will also have to devise reasonable rates
for the services they expose. Early attempts
to corner the content market by demanding
upwards of 60 percent of revenues led content
providers to attempt an OTT methodology of
their own, but they are limited to customers
who either have credit cards or can make
mobile payments. Working closely with CSPs at
reasonable margins would benefit both.
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MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
QUICK INSIGHTS
“CSPs in some countries
have promoted the
development of localized
apps in their home
markets, some with
great success.”
However, it will be a considerable task for
CSPs to gain the confidence of third parties,
and for the CSPs to invest in their systems to
provide them with the necessary access without
jeopardizing their own operations.
Apps
Building apps to generate network data
that can be charged for came second in
both surveys. It could refer to apps sold to
customers for use on their own devices,
and to apps that run on the network and
are accessed by the devices, and even a
combination of both.
CSPs in some countries have promoted the
development of localized apps in their home
markets, some with great success. Others are
backing the GSMA’s Wholesale Applications
Community (WAC) initiative that aims to
create a pool of apps available through mobile
operators. Developers only have to generate
one version of an app to work across all the
operators involved.
Mayer suggested that if CSPs were to create
their own apps in healthcare, for example,
it would mean guaranteed connectivity and
higher priority embedded in the application –
something only they could provide. New types
of services could be driven by these types
of apps that have a quality of service (QoS)
or service level agreement (SLA) componentattached. With 80 million baby boomers in the
U.S. alone (that is people born in the years
immediately after the Second World War), the
healthcare market has huge potential.
The same applies to the enterprise and small
to medium business (SMB) market, which is
gaining an appetite for mobile applications, in
particular, those that require other network
assets (such as cloud services and location)
to be most effective for their geographically
dispersed workforces. Connectivity will be
critical, so applications that manage and
guarantee that connectivity will be key.
In a recent TM Forum webinar, Florian
Michel-Gabriel and Marco D’Aleo from
Accenture raised similar concerns that CSPs
cannot wait for problems that cause outages
or serious service degradation to develop in
their networks. They need to be proactive in
identifying potential problems and be able
to assess quality through the entire service
delivery chain and the distributed network
systems in real-time.
The CSPs that can enable this service
across all network and application domains,
including radio access, backhaul, transport,
core network, and value added services (VAS,
such as network and diagnostics providing
information about performance, quality, and any
apparent faults) will provide value that could
and should be charged for.
Quality of service and experience
Network operators want to have control
across the network and deliver third parties’
services with an end-to-end view of service
management, SLA assurance, Quality of
Experience (QoE) and QoS.
John Aalbers, Volubill, comments, “If
CSPs can guarantee an end-to-end QoS then
there has to be a way that this can lock into
a business model with third party contentproviders. Otherwise, I don’t see any reason
why they would want to open up and share
revenues with CSPs. There has to be a
commensurate value offered and QoS is
something they will never be able to offer on
their own.”
Levy adds; “It’s not just about QoS, it’s
about end-to-end QoE. It’s about distributed
computing. There needs to be some sort of
prioritization and all networks have to work in a
cohesive way – end-to-end. The issue of content
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Policy managementis a very hot topic
delivery and the fact that broadcasters are going
global but expect quality delivery supports this
argument. Why not offer them QoS for their
customers and charge them for it?”
Others felt that the perception of QoS varies
from region to region. There were concerns
that the communications industry could keep
spending to improve quality without seeing a
return on that investment as expectations rise.
One delegate says, “CSPs should look more
at bundling services than focusing on one
equation. For the enterprises and SMBs, QoS
definitely comes into play. That’s why they
pay more for their services. Many businesses
would like peering arrangements and direct
access to the Internet. The other angle is that
CSPs can provide IT as service for SMBs and
could partner to do it.”
IT architects see services as requiring a
lot of integration. Underlying standards are
important to achieving this and enabling
complex applications. At the same time, the
services must be managed end-to-end to deal
with QoE issues.
The QoS and QoE discussion was the
longest debated at the roundtable, not just in
its own right, but along with the issues it raises
around net neutrality (see page 17).
Policy management
Policy management across the operation of thenetwork and its associated support systems has
become one of the hottest topics for operators
and suppliers. It can be broken down into usage
management and charging controls.
Usage management balances the demands
on network resources, services and capacity
among growing data consumers, bandwidth-
hungry applications and always-connected
devices. Charging controls charge users
according to quotas, real-time service and
charge acceptance, delivery confirmation
Figure 1-3: Which departments within your organization are responsible for procuringand operating your policy control solutions?
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
I T o r g a n i z
a t i o n
N e
t w o r k o p e r a
t i o n s
N e
t w o r k e n g
i n e
e r i n g
M a r k
e t i n g
O
t h e r
(event and session- based activity), and
subscription plans. They also enforce QoS-based
applications, such as VoIP.
Aalbers says there are two approaches to
policy management from the suppliers’ point of
view: “In a network request for proposal (RFP),policy management is a box they have to have
in the infrastructure. Another part of the market
comes at it from the marketing or business
perspective saying this policy stuff is a really
powerful tool that, put together with charging
and subscriber data, can be used as a way of
segmenting the market more deeply.”
Accenture believes that CSPs require
advanced solutions in policy management,
enabling greater control over service quality
by dynamically adapting network resources
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MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
QUICK INSIGHTS
to a user’s status and real-time usage. An
effective policy management infrastructure
should control and dynamically adapt network
resources based on application and network
triggers.
Policy management capabilities are being
driven by regulators in different parts of the
world. They are insisting on operators having
better real-time access to subscribers’ usage
data. For example, European regulation
(the so-called Bill Shock Prevention policy)
obligates CSPs to inform roaming subscribers
immediately when their data roaming charges
reach a certain level. Innovative policy
management helps operators comply with such
regulations.
Policy management vendor Openet reckons
that the small, but growing, number of users
who consume most of the network resources
are destroying the economics of unlimited,
high-speed Internet service access. This
means service providers need to find ways to
monetize fast, rich media delivery.
Operators can only achieve maximum
performance and revenue by offering
differentiated services through individual
subscriber’s policies to segment users by
the speed of their data service and/or usage.
Subscribers select the best data package for
their needs and operators make a reasonable
return on their network investments.Better control of bandwidth relates to better
cost controls and enables the CSP to offer
its customers, particularly enterprises, ways
of managing their own staff usage. This is
another example of a VAS that could generate
extra revenues and encourage customers to
be loyal.
Quota management
The concept of per service quota buckets is
that each service (data, video, voice, or peer-
to-peer) can be configured separately on a time
or volume basis. It has been in use for some
time, particularly in the prepaid sector. There
is no reason why it could not be extended and
offered as a VAS to enterprises or individuals,
through enforcing intelligent policy-based rules
once the agreed quota is reached. This would
prevent users running up huge bills, keep
regulators happy, and help operators plan and
manage network capacity.
Quota management underpins tiered data
services, quota-based, and unlimited services
that are pre- or postpaid for voice, data, and
video applications. In some markets where
customers are still charged per kilobyte
downloaded or data plans are not readily
available, content providers buy wholesale
data capacity from a CSP at low prices and
cover the cost of the content transmission to
their customers in the price of a bundle. This
is like an OTT supplier-pays model, but relies
on quota management to track the take-up of
purchased data volumes.
Authentication/security
Levy pointed out that BT, in trying to work out
how to offer VASs, discovered authentication
can be resold. Mobile operators have, at the
very least, knowledge and control of the device
on their network and have in place standard
authentication, authorization, and accounting(AAA) capabilities.
Combining AAA with the security of mobile
networks is also a desirable feature that could
be monetized.
Mobile payments expert David Birch, co-
founder and director of Consult Hyperion,
believes that CSPs could become smart pipes
for financial transactions. This is because
operators can link secure identification to
the SIM, providing private and public keys
for multiple providers. The resultant digital
“Policy management
capabilities are being
driven by regulators in
different parts of the
world.”
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The right intelligencecan increase revenue
signatures would allow for ultra-secure, low-
level authentication via the mobile device.
In this instance, revenue is not necessarily
the primary driver so much as reducing churn:
smart pipe operators could give the service
away to key holders so they could offer a
range of secure transaction services to their
customers.
Device management
Mobile service providers can deliver an
intelligent networking experience that allows
subscribers to dynamically activate, select, and
update services and plans in real-time using
over-the-air (OTA) provisioning. Offering this
to third parties, as mentioned above, can be
achieved through security-based applications,
such as a SIM tool box, SIM management and
security.
Managing devices over the network gives
the mobile operator an advantage over its
fixed line counterparts as the device supports
personalized services and content. So the
delivery of targeted content and advertising is
customized by device, network location, and
subscriber profile. This also allows the CSP or
its third party partners to deliver value-added
applications, such as parental and time-of-day
controls, plus video and gaming.
Accenture believes that: “Delivering
consistently high mobile-service quality dependson the ability to determine what customers are
experiencing on their devices in real-time…
consumers are frequently bewildered by the
complexity of devices – a situation that has the
potential to decrease usage and, therefore,
average revenue per user.
“Mobile operators can deliver advanced,
user-centric functionality and support with the
aid of a mobile device-management capability.
This suite of technologies and tools gives
customer service representatives a more
complete view of the user’s experience,
enabling rapid diagnosis and troubleshooting of
device-related problems, and therefore faster
resolution. Tailored support can be provided
where it often matters most – right at the
device, where customers form their most
enduring impressions of a company’s brand
and service.
“An especially innovative aspect of advanced
service monitoring capabilities is a mobile
device quality agent. Imagine software,
installed on customers’ mobile phones, that
effectively turns thousands of mobile devices
into stations capable of monitoring service
performance cost-effectively. The software
on customers’ mobile phones could monitor
service performance and quality, raise alarms if
service quality falls below a pre-set threshold
and also collect data that can be analyzed to
uncover root-cause problems.
“This approach addresses one of the biggest
challenges mobile operators face in delivering
agreed-to service levels to customers: the
fact that carriers can monitor current network
conditions on their end but find it hard to
pinpoint problems that may be degrading the
experience actually produced by the user’s
device. With device-based insight into service
quality, companies can understand what’s
happening and take action.”
Intelligence and analytics
Intelligence about the customer, and
intelligence built into the infrastructure to
guarantee delivery of VAS are both potential
means of creating new revenue
In the first case, CSPs can offer third party
content providers and partners – such as
Google, AdMob, and Yahoo – subscriber profile
information, enabling them to tailor their OTT
service offerings and content to each user.
Customer profiling, tracking customer patterns,
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MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
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knowing the most popular websites and what
content and applications are selling could give
the CSP a huge source of revenue. Analytics
then become the key tool for managing this
area (members can download the Insights
Research report Exploiting Analytics: How to
Improve Customers’ Experience free of charge
from our website).
On the infrastructure side, we need more
intelligent operation of core networks to
manage services more effectively. Prioritizing
data is essential. Network neutrality (see
page 17) arguments were established in the
Web 1.0 days, long before we envisaged the
demands of Web 2.0 and high-speed high-
bandwidth access. They were designed to
prevent incumbents from killing new players
like Google. Now the reverse is true; such
players could kill CSPs.
To maximize profit and market share,
mobile service providers need to create a
dynamic, intelligent network that automatically
maximizes bandwidth, manages network
resources effectively, tracks and monetizes
services, and enables a user to customize their
experience in real-time.
Performance management for monitoring
and reporting, and analytics for data services
will become increasingly important. Operators
need to understand better how to tune their
networks and provide more data to subscribersto increase the transparency of services.
Increased sensitivities around net neutrality
may play a big role in stressing the importance
of transparency, depending on future regulation
(which is likely to differ around the world).
Using the intelligent features of these
platforms, mobile operators can integrate
subscriber information with network and
application intelligence, in real-time, to deliver
personalized experiences. Such real-time
session and subscriber-state intelligence is not
available through the cookies in a web browser,
only through the intelligence embedded in an
operator’s mobile Internet core.
This can be used to create next generation
business architectures and new business
models. Operators can benefit from two-sided
business models, creating value for both
providers and consumers while benefiting from
both. With these capabilities in place, mobile
operators can enter new markets, including
machine-to-machine, cloud services, and
targeted advertising.
Location
Service providers are able to deliver location-
based customized content, applications, and
OTT services based on location – otherwise
known as Mobile Location-Based Services
(MLBS). Revenues could come from sales
of MLBS apps through application stores
and other channels, but also from mobile
advertising tied to those apps. In fact, a Juniper
Research report notes that advertising will
likely form an increasing share of MLBS-related
revenues over the next five years.
In the words of Juniper’s principal analyst, Dr.
Windsor Holden, “Location-based applications
are extremely interesting for brands and
retailers in that they allow those companies
to direct consumers to outlets in their vicinity
while simultaneously providing informationabout the products on offer. When these are
allied to measures such as mobile coupons
and vouchers, you have the combination of
information and financial incentive, which can
be compelling for consumers.”
Wikipedia defines (M)LBS as including
services to identify a location of a person or
object, such as discovering the nearest ATM
or the whereabouts of a friend or employee.
(M)LBS include parcel and vehicle tracking.
They can include mobile commerce in the
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Standards are vitalfor revenue generation
form of coupons or advertising directed at
customers based on their location. They
include personalized weather services and
even location-based games. They are an
example of the convergence of many elements
into a communications service.
The fact that mobile CSPs can determine and
utilize location information in real-time should
generate far more interest and revenue than
it does. Perhaps the increase of smartphones
and applications containing MLBS information
will drive this revenue stream.
Interoperability standards
The roundtable spent some time on standards,
or the lack of them, that are needed to help
generate revenue from bandwidth provision.
Most agreed on the need for standards and
felt that a number of organizations were
offering standards for pieces of the jigsaw.
One attendee from a software company wants
CSPs to collaborate much more, to manage
their partnerships and to group things together
to add value to the end-user.
Another barrier to deployment is the
integration nightmare – the difficulty of
implementing multi-vendor solutions that
use different standards, interfaces and policy
management systems. The situation becomes
almost impossible when each vendor’s product
requires separate integration with the serviceprovider’s OSS or provisioning environment.
Moreover, the need for multiple elements to
analyze traffic flows introduces latency, which
can affect performance.
Phil Dance, managing director, technology, BT,
says, “TM Forum needs to define the rules and
lobby the industry about prioritization. Content
providers and customers all want quality of
delivery and will not put up with video that is
pixelated or staggered. We need to define what
the levels of priority are and label them so there
is some standardization across the telecoms
industry – so that Priority One, Two or Three
means the same thing to everyone.
“A good example is that if someone dials
the emergency number on a VoIP network
it is recognized and gets priority over all
other traffic, and that healthcare applications
monitoring individuals in remote locations are
not disconnected or access restricted because
of network congestion.
“In talking to leading players in movie
entertainment, the concerns are around
digital rights [DR] and whether the content
being delivered has the necessary DR and that
the customer experience is as good as having
the DVD.”
Levy comments, “Standards are in place
for VoIP, IPTV, and other services but not
implemented the same by all vendors. Getting
hung up on making money from the pipe will
not solve the problem and we must focus on
the services running over the network to make
more money.”
Another delegate adds, “Consumers will be
willing to pay for a better conditioned service
that is differentiated, like gaming and peer-to-
peer. It’s not a matter of technology for CSPs,
just their willingness to experiment. There is
ample technology to implement these business
models, but there is indecision.
“You don’t need standards to cross serviceproviders’ [physical] boundaries, in the same
way, you have to allow exclusive partnerships
to guarantee QoS and encourage the parties
to make the investment. Some innovators will
determine a way to do QoS across borders
and if it’s successful it will likely be adopted
by others and may become a standard in due
course. Standardization is far too early for the
monetization of bandwidth.”
“The fact that mobile
CSPs can determine and
utilize location information
in real-time should
generate far more interest
and revenue than it does.”
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MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
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Google Tax
There has been discussion of late around
charging companies such as Google, YouTube,
Netflix, and other OTT entities that generate
massive amounts of traffic without bearing the
cost of transmission. Known as the Google
Tax, it is not that different from interconnect
transit and termination charges for voice on
circuit-switched networks. However, apart from
peering arrangements between major Internet
service providers, IP traffic appears to be
carried at no charge.
Aalbers says, “Operators are in a
disadvantaged position because companies
like YouTube can launch a high-definition
service and suddenly bandwidth consumption
increases dramatically. Is there any obligation,
morally, for YouTube to contribute to that cost?
Or is the obligation with the end-user who
benefits from the higher bandwidth usage?”
An infrastructure charge to application and
content providers is one suggestion to deal
with this situation, maybe on a sliding scale if
they use other services, like billing, provided by
the operators.
Dance points out that BT has become the
wholesaler of choice for many companies
that were previously competitors because its
services allow them to reduce their operating
expenses and cut overheads while still
delivering product.Content and service providers could pay the
mobile operator for quality access and delivery
of locally cached premium content to multiple
screens (see page page 8, Quality of service
and experience). Consumers could also pay
the mobile operator for premium, personal
multimedia services on multiple screens.
Unless CSPs are able to provide something
unique to these players or develop partnerships
that benefit both sides, introducing a Google
Tax will be very difficult.
(This issue is examined in greater detail in
the Quick Insights report Future Shock II: The
age of the user , which is available free to TM
Forum members from our website.)
New sectors add pressure
As the demand for high-definition video and
video-sharing multimedia continues to rise
across the healthcare, security, and retail
marketplaces, networks will be put under
further stress. There is an urgent need to
optimize the transport of high-bandwidth
traffic. New technologies need to be sponsored
and adopted by CSPs.
Healthcare repeatedly comes up as an
example of this new generation of mobile
services that could monitor patients at home,
reduce the need to travel to health centers
and offer remote diagnosis by physicians. We
have already seen operations and medical
procedures being managed over the Internet
as well as diagnoses of X-rays and tests in
real-time by specialists located thousands of
miles away.
Security surveillance, remote monitoring of
utilities’ plant, and personal monitoring of homes
and vehicles with video links are all bandwidth
intensive apps that can generate premium
revenues in return for guaranteed QoS.
Accenture points out that discussions of the
new era of mobile high-speed broadband areusually focused on new network technologies,
innovative services and an ever-expanding
array of devices. However, seeing through
the eyes of the customer is equally important.
Monitoring individual usage and tailoring the
right experience to the right need will be critical
to success, along with the ability to probe the
network and mobile applications to discover
the source of service issues.
Competitive advantage in the high speed
mobile broadband era depends on customer-
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Cloud computingraises trust issues
centricity. Across deployment strategies,
network planning, service and support,
communications companies that successfully
drive profitable growth and high performance
will do so by keeping the customer experience
at the forefront.
Cloud computing
One of the most hyped areas being touted for
bandwidth monetization is cloud computing,
in all its permutations – Infrastructure as a
Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS),
Communications as a Service (CaaS), Platform
as a Service (PaaS), and any other XaaS you
can think of. CSPs see cloud as a natural
extension of what they do already, providing
these services to customers via their own
networks.
Connectivity is the common factor and
guaranteed access can realistically only be
offered by CSPs that control their own network
infrastructure. The bundling of communications
and services, partnering with key software and
equipment vendors, and billing in multiple ways
are all seen as major growth areas.
Dance argues, “We are now dealing with
distributed computers – the last mile is speeding
up, but has been the point of constraint. Once
opened up, the last choke point on the Internet
is removed. As Internet use becomes greater,
the core networks will not be able to cope withthe loads placed on them.”
Another delegate adds, “In China, one of
the most important drivers is the government.
Trying to bolster competition between the
three mobile players by pushing 3G and triple
play, now the traditional telco can get into the
Pay TV industry and the Pay TV players can get
into telco services.
“In this situation operators have pressure
to introduce more VAS to make more use of
their network, to differentiate their service
and to retain their customer base. This is a big
challenge. Most operators in Asia are looking
for growth in revenue from data, they want to
be major players in cloud computing. Building
up trust is the major issue, along with privacy
and security. Still the trend is to buy systems
rather than services.”
It should be noted that the issue of trust is
raised when talking about cloud computing
because data is located remotely, and access
to it at all times is critical. CSPs are generally
regarded as trusted parties and have the
distinct advantage of already having firm,
direct relationships with customers (TM Forum
has published a range of Quick Insights and
Insights Research reports on different aspects
of cloud – members can download them free
from here.)
Bundling, pricing and billing
As CSPs’ focus turns to revenue creation
around data services, moving beyond cost
control from managing traffic, we can expect
to see more experimentation with flexible and
creative data service bundles. Operators could
introduce tiers for video, music or gaming
services instead of pricing plans by the byte.
These appeal to a greater range of customer
segments, increasing retention and offering
personalized service plans.
Some emerging markets are alreadycharging for Internet access as pay-as-you-go
models in blocks of time. In Indonesia, SMS is
charged by the character to make it affordable
to the poorest subscriber. Why pay for 160
characters when you only want to send 10? It
is reminiscent of the way telegraph messages
were paid for more than a century ago.
Operators in Indonesia also offer Facebook
access free to generate loyalty and promote
usage for other Internet services on mobile. It
has been very successful.
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MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
QUICK INSIGHTS
Others are experimenting with monetizing
software applications for mobile: a mobile app
acts as a unique transaction unit and estimates
its own bandwidth usage, determining a pricing
model on the fly and deploying the app, based
on the pricing model. The program monitors
the consumer’s usage and adjusts the pricing
model if required.
Dynamic billing rates bandwidth usage at
differing values, depending on network loads
and availability. Users are encouraged, by
SMS, to take advantage of higher tiers or
lower unit charging when the network is not
busy and the reverse when it is busy. This
helps the operator balance loads and reduce
network investment by coping better with
peak traffic loads, which may only occur once
or twice a day for short periods.
Personalizing service plans
Susie Kim Riley, CMO, Tekelec, states, “This
year saw the first moves away from the ‘all
you can eat’ data plans, with many operators
globally introducing capped tariff tiers as
the battle to take charge of the seemingly
insurmountable data surge intensified. The
introduction of Policy and Charging Rules
Function (PCRF) enabled operators to launch
the first tiered services, giving subscribers the
opportunity to pay a premium for faster data
rates and higher data allowances. But whatcould be next for this maturing market?
“Operators will shift their focus to the
subscriber experience, moving beyond
bandwidth to providing the subscriber with the
experience that is tuned for the applications
and services they desire. Instead of only
ensuring the sufficient bandwidth for services,
operators will want to leverage other technology
components that can enrich the experience.
“For example, in the case of a sporting
event video application, location information
can be exploited to ‘localize’ the experience,
as well as potentially provide users with
targeted advertising for retailers close to the
subscriber.”
Due to the range of services accessed
by today’s subscribers, and mobile service
providers needing to keep costs low, it is
important for a network to be as automatic
or self-managing as possible. One way is to
provide users with self-service options to
adjust their own service settings. If subscribers
need to quickly increase their bandwidth
access, for instance, a ‘turbo boost’ feature is a
real advantage and a great revenue opportunity
for service providers.
Other popular features include parental or
time-of-day controls and fair use bandwidth
management. Allowing subscribers to design
and manage their own service plans will be a
leap of faith for many CSPs, not only because
of the limits of legacy systems, but because
they fear they will not be able to control them.
“Allowing subscribers to design and
manage their own service plans will be
a leap of faith for many CSPs.”
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The net(work) neutralitydebate rages on
External influences and some conclusions
Section 2
We must recognize outside pressures
that could have a negative impact on
communications service providers’ (CSPs’)
ability and need to monetize bandwidth.
These arguments will need to addressed and
responded to if the regulators are going to take
into account the needs of the industry and not
just those of the most vocal.
Monetizing bandwidth is critical for the
survival of the communications industry;
without sufficient income to invest in greater
capacity, faster networks, it cannot prosper.
Yet there is huge opposition to moving away
from the principle on which the Internet as a
mass medium developed, that it takes in data
packets at one end and does its best to deliver
them to their destinations regardless of content
– also known as network neutrality (NN).
NN arouses strong feelings on all sides, with
different people having very definite ideas
about what neutrality is, how important it is,
and its implications. The argument around NN
is a clash of ideologies, cultures, and deeply
held principles. Those in favor of NN argue that
allowing different charging mechanisms for
different levels of service will kill the innovation
that allowed the Internet to be such a powerful
and disruptive force.
In a paper entitled, How Industry Intends
To Kill The Internet As We Know It , by Jeff
Chester, Executive Director, Center for DigitalDemocracy, this is explained briefly and well.
He writes: “The Internet’s promise as a new
medium – where text, audio, video and data
can be freely exchanged – is under attack
by the corporations that control the public’s
access to the ‘Net, as they see opportunities
to monitor and charge for the content people
seek and send. The industry’s vision is the
online equivalent of seizing the taxpayer-owned
airways, as radio and television conglomerates
did over the course of the 20th century.
“These goals and objectives are visible
to anyone who cares to look at the arcane
world of telecommunications policy and
planning, either in the industry trade press or
government documents. The bottom line is the
industry wants to kill the Internet as we know it.
“The consequences are cultural and will
affect the pace and character of progress in
the early 21st century. If the communications
companies impose tolls, roadblocks and dead
ends on the information ‘superhighway,’ they
will be robbing public trust resources in much
the same way 19th-century mining companies
pilfered public lands, and 20th-century radio
and television networks privatized the public’s
airwaves.”
Yet something will have to give. In Section 1,
we looked briefly at some largely interrelated
ways that CSPs could monetize bandwidth,
from exposing network assets to policy
and quota management, authentication and
security, device management, the use of
location data, interoperability standards, a
Google Tax, new services with guaranteed
Quality of Service (QoS) embedded in them,
bundling, pricing and billing, and personalizing
service plans. So there is no shortage of ideas,
technologies, opportunities and new business
models.
Almost every discussion at the roundtable
that includes some type of traffic, policy,bandwidth management or conditioning
gives rise to concerns about NN and the
expectation that regulators, led by the U.S.,
will perhaps stop anything that affects equal,
unencumbered access to the Internet.
However, it would seem this is not
entirely the case. In December 2010, the
U.S. regulator, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) published its rules on NN*.
The report states that the Internet is a level
playing field. Consumers can make their own*The full report can be found at:
http://www.fcc.gov/
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MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
QUICK INSIGHTS
choices about what applications and services to
use and are free to decide what content they
want to access, create, or share with others.
This openness promotes competition.
It also enables a self-reinforcing cycle of
investment and innovation in which new uses
of the network lead to increased adoption
of broadband, which drives investment and
improvements in the network itself. This in turn
leads to further innovative uses of the network
and more investment in content, applications,
services, and devices.
Crucially, there were, however, concessions
made to wireless operators that, as Julius
Genachowski, chairman, FCC, points out, have
“unique technical issues involving spectrum
and mobile networks, the stage and rate of
innovation in mobile broadband; and market
structure.”
This, as was widely expected, has left
the door open to price mobile broadband
services in ways that will differ from wireline.
However, cable, fixed and wireless operators
are subject to a ‘no blocking’ rule which affects
lawful content and applications. They are also
prevented from disallowing services like Google
Voice that compete with their own offerings.
CSPs must disclose information to
consumers about network management
practices and performance under the
regulation’s transparency requirement.‘Reasonable network management’ is defined
as ‘appropriate and tailored to achieving a
legitimate network management purpose’
such as ensuring network security and
integrity, addressing harmful network traffic,
and mitigating network congestion. The
interpretations of this are likely to be debated
endlessly in court.
The key elements are to preserve the
Internet’s transparency, prevent blocking
of access to ‘lawful’ websites, and prevent
unreasonable discrimination in the transmission
of ‘lawful’ network traffic.
Yet, as the much respected technology
correspondent on the British newspaper,
The Guardian, wrote,“[the proposed rules]
seem to allow mobile carriers to decide that
they can introduce pay-per-service charges,
so that Skype or YouTube or Facebook might
be charged to get their content on to the
networks; alternatively (or perhaps additionally),
users who wanted those services might
find themselves being charged extra. That,
obviously, means that those services are not
being treated in a ‘neutral’ way. Which means
that you don’t have net neutrality.”
Also, while in developed economies at
least, most of us access the web via fixed-
line broadband most of the time, this will not
be the case in future and nor will it ever be in
developing economies.
While the suggestion is that NN rules will be
stricter on fixed line in the U.S., for the time
being at least, this is not likely to be the case
elsewhere. Juniper Networks’ Levy notes,
“There has been recent debate in the U.K.
about allowing traffic management, as opposed
to NN recommendations to U.K. Government.
It is deemed to be in the public good that a
radio service or IPTV is delivered uninterrupted.
The negative argument was that it would mean
restricting other traffic types, which wouldneed regulating. The question is, ‘Should CSPs
have the right to provide differential levels of
quality?’.”
In addition, the U.K.’s Minister for
Communication, Culture and the Creative
Industries, Ed Vaizey, hinted in the fall of 2010
that the government’s expected ruling on NN,
would support light regulation and allow
Internet service providers to charge content
providers for priority access. This seems to be
happening.
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Who pays forQuality of Service?
As this report went to press at the beginning
of 2011, there was an angry debate underway
in the U.K. about BT Wholesale’s plans to offer
a new service, Content Connect, to ISPs, such
as Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Sky, in the spring.
The idea is that the ISPs could offer content
providers such as the BBC’s iPlayer or Google’s
YouTube the option of paying for faster delivery
of their content to consumers.
BT and the BBC have already been fighting
about the amount of bandwidth consumed by
its highly popular, free iPlayer streaming service.
In November, the BBC said it would introduce a
traffic light system on iPlayer so that users could
see if their ISP was slowing down delivery by
giving priority to other traffic. BT has denied it is
paving the way to a two-tier Internet.
The discussion around NN in the roundtable
indicates the complexity of the issue and
how differently people approach it. Aalbers
of Volubill raises the theory of Reasonable
Network Management (RNM) in the NN
discussions. He argues, “QoS needs to be
seen positively. Rather than stating if you use
too much bandwidth you will be throttled,
instead say, ‘This is what you can expect at
this package level but if you wish to pay extra
we can guarantee a better QoS’. RNM will be
ambiguous until there is a test case.”
Levine from Infonetics Research asks, “Who
pays for it, and who will get it past the courts?”
while Levy states, “The regulator is preventing
operators from taking control of their networks.”
Levine adds, “How much is this a North
American versus European issue and is this
holding back the TM Forum? It is widely
accepted that prioritization is already there,
voice traffic cannot be treated the same as
data. It’s a matter of perception.”
Dance of BT, enquires, “Who should pay
for QoS, should it be the end-user or the edge
provider? Reading the FCC line with regards
to the end-user, it is pretty unclear. You can
make the case that there are a number of
service applications end-users would be happy
to pay for. A lot of subscribers would jump at
an offer from AT&T for $10 per month to get
guaranteed quality for movie downloads, for
example. The FCC would tell users that’s no
good even if they want it!”
Paul Feldman, a US attorney at Fletcher,
Heald & Hildreth with a close working
knowledge of NN discussions says, “You’ve
raised another issue, that of managed
services. There was a proposal that the FCC
came out with in 2009 under which some
managed services would be exempted from
network neutrality requirements…some of the
exemptions were actually remote healthcare
and public safety.
“What has been interesting is that the
debate was so captured by the advocates of
“The discussion around NN in the roundtable indicates the complexity of the issue
and how differently people approach it.”
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MONETIZINGBANDWIDTH
QUICK INSIGHTS
a pure net neutrality that there should be no
prioritization at all, that even these exemptions
are now in question. One thing that comes
out of this is, have members of the TM Forum
been as active on this issue as they could
have been?”
TM Forum’s Advisory Council had met earlier
and voted overwhelmingly that it did not want
to engage in the NN argument, with 18 out of
20 against involvement.
Dance feels that, “We have to try and
get with the regulators, not to argue but to
explain in a logical and scientific manner the
repercussions of having no controls on data
usage over networks and the fear that it could
all come to a screeching halt. It’s the law of
physics. To ignore it is a dangerous thing.”
Aalbers asks, “Is it more about what you are
allowed to sell one group over another in terms
of differentiation?”
Levy says, “There is a lot of pressure on
operators to offer premium service but is that
in the public’s interest? If it doesn’t happen
we will be in real trouble. Investment in
transmission will be minimized because of the
economics of that type of investment.”
Whatman of Parhelion Global
Communications Advisors, asks, “So what
happens when QoS across the network is
equal but it’s all poor? Is that acceptable? The
tragedy of the commons equals Internet miseryfor all. At that point it will be too late. If I am
an operator getting better return in developing
software and apps than upgrading networks
why would I bother and what board would not
support that approach? If it comes to that and
the network starts to falter, wouldn’t the same
operators simply turn to government and say
‘it’s your problem now’ and hand them the
network to manage?”
Whatever the outcomes – and this debate is
going to run and run all around the world – NN
legislation/regulation will likely have a profound
effect on a CSP’s ability to generate revenues
by offering services reliant on different QoS
levels, policy management or traffic shaping.
Now is the time they should be lobbying
legislators in each market.
“There is alot of pressure on operators
to offer premium service, but is that in
the public interest? If it doesn’t happen,
we will be in real trouble.”
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Frameworx is developed collaborativelyby TM Forum’s online community
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With the current demand for broadband,
operators are compelled to maintain a
delicate equilibrium between competitively
priced customer offerings to grow market
share, and manage the network costs of
surging data traffic to maintain profitability.
Policy management’s ability to
dynamically control and manage the
subscriber experience and network
resources has emerged as an enabler
of service differentiation and a source of
incremental revenue. In addition, it provides
a means to better allocate network capacity,
and manage the capital expenditure
associated with the growth in mobile data.
The power of policy management
One of the most popular applications of
policy management is fair usage, where
it is used to create service plans with
associated data usage caps. However,
operators are rapidly evolving their use of
policy management from this application to
address a whole range of opportunities and
challenges associated with the growth in
data subscribers and traffic (see Figure 1).
A recent survey on the policy
management market by analyst firm
Heavy Reading discussed how operators
are looking to policy management to
deliver richer features and new solutions
by holistically configuring and combining
various parameters (Figure 2) to create and
improve data business models to offer a
differentiated customer experience and to
efficiently assign limited network resources.
The intrinsic flexibility of a rules-based
policy management system, with its
capability to dynamically execute service-,
session-, and subscriber-aware rules
provides operators with a very robust
data traffic management and subscriber
personalization capability.
Creative pricing and packaging of
mobile data
With smarter devices and new applications
driving consumer demand for Internet
connectivity, operators that can rise above
confusing cost per MB and volume quota
pricing strategies will be in a position to win
big in the marketplace.
There are huge differences in the
amount of data and bandwidth subscribers
consume even for customers using similar
devices. Policy management enables
operators to adopt a more sophisticated
and segmented approach to selling data
access to meet the needs of both high
ARPU users and the particular needs of low
ARPU, or nomadic users.
Policy management enables operators
to make data plan improvements by
flexibly configuring data plans that
combine a variety of options made up of
bandwidth speed, data allowance, device
type, duration, time-of-day rules, or the
exclusion of specified applications into
appealing market offerings.
To prevent the commoditization trap,
future revenue growth and profits from
data access will be greatly influenced
by how operators package and sell
their data plans to address the different
needs of distinct market segments.
Policy management provides operators
with a way to enhance their existing
business models by giving operators the
flexibility to craft innovative plans to create
opportunities for revenue growth.
A differentiated subscriber experience
Mobile operators are central to subscribers
Internet experiences as more and more
users become accustomed to and
comfortable with using mobile data
services. This applies equally to users with
high data use and high dollar plans, as well
as new users with less data usage and
simpler contracts. Putting the capabilities in
place to enhance the customer experience
for all subscribers enables new revenue
and differentiation opportunities.
Policy-based controls such as parental
and content controls, bill shock and
roaming controls, URL filtering, customer
notifications, subscriber defined time of
day restrictions, and quality of service can
all be part of the managed personalized
subscriber experience. These provide
opportunities for operators to add value to
differentiate their services by improving the
user’s service experience.When dynamic policy management
controls are combined with charging
capabilities, the concept of personalization is
further expanded to add in how subscribers
can pay for their services. These controls
make it possible to make intelligent, real-
time decisions based on whether the user
has enough credit to make a payment, if
they need to buy a service pass or bundle,
have an inclusive data plan, whether they
are in a Wi-Fi hotspot or are roaming. With
SPONSORED FEATURE
Make your own ruleswith Policy Management
Figure 1: Top six drivers for policy management
Source: Heavy Reading, Next Generation Policy Management Study Findings, July 2010
Enable us to apply “fair use” management techniques to better handle network congestion
Improve quality and depth of network traffic and applications reporting and analysis
Enable us to offer tiered or customized services to different classes or individual customers
Improve quality and reliability of our own key services (e.g. video services or VOIP)
Improve our ability to meter and charge customers for service features & attributes
Enable us to understand subscriber behavior and create subscriber profiles
2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1 3.3 3.5 3.7 3.9 4.1 4.3
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this information, operators are empowered
to provide an integrated, interactive and
highly personalized service experience to
customers.
Better congestion management
After years of operators being forced to
compete for customers on price, there are
signs that smartphone users care more
about network quality than tariffs, giving
operators the opportunity to gain back
some pricing power. Paradoxically however,
as more usage and more demands are
placed on network bandwidth, for many
operators service is becoming progressively
more uneven, networks are becoming
overloaded, and capacity is being crunched.
Operators in search of more efficient
bit delivery are enlisting intelligent policy
and network management controls to
keep on growing their data revenues
profitably. Policy management can be used
to align data plans with subscriber usage
to influence subscriber behavior to lessen
pressure during peak congestion periods
and where required manage bandwidth-
intensive applications and services during
periods of network strain.
Policy management also allows
carriers to become more congestion
and application specific in how they
manage the stream of data traffic on
their networks, implementing dynamic,
real-time subscriber management controls
to enhance the wireless experience andreduce congestion in the network.
The power mix: policy controls with
charging
Making policy decisions based on data
usage alone lacks a lot of important context.
Powerful policy controls, when combined
with real-time charging capabilities, enable
fresh thinking on monetization. Including
information about pricing, subscriber usage
limits, and balances makes it possible
for operators to respond dynamically to
opportunities presented by changes in
subscriber or network state or activity, with
relevant offers and information.
Combining policy with charging makes it
possible for operators to enforce a spending
limit, or make an offer or a promotion to up-
sell and cross-sell services, e.g. to renew adata allowance, purchase a roaming bundle,
or request a bandwidth boost.
As service delivery becomes more
complex, with a multitude of choices and
options, marketers need to be able to
simplify customer interactions, ensure a
better customer experience, and present
relevant clear offers.
Policy controls combined with charging
simplify the user experience, making it
possible to make contextual relevant offers
that promote services and information in a
convenient and timely fashion.
Conclusion
Rapid data traffic growth is forecasted to
accelerate with new smart devices, mobile
dongles, and the growing popularity of
video and social networking. Even though
network evolution brings higher capacity
with new technologies such as HSPA+
and LTE, radio resources will always be
finite and building networks to sustain high
quality for all subscribers will be costly.
With policy controls, operators can
alleviate the pressure on network
resources by enforcing subscriber and
application aware policies to reduce theneed for network overbuilds. But more
crucially, these controls provide the
means to innovate. In a rapidly evolving
market for data access, policy controls
give operators much needed flexibility
to quickly respond to competitor tactics,
new devices, applications, and changing
consumer data habits.
Download resources, and learn more:
www.openet.com
Figure 2: Top triggers for policy decisions
Source: Heavy Reading, Next Generation Policy Management Study Findings, July 2010
“Making policy decisions
based on data usage alone
lacks a lot of important
context.”
Volume of data
Application type
Time (e.g. Minutes of use)
Protocol
Time of day
Location
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Weighted score where “most important” = 4, 2nd most important = 3,
3rd most important = 2, 4th most important = 1; top 5 only
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