Carriers’ mobile networks are extremely vulnerable to sudden changes in the signaling behavior of popular applications. In fact, Patrick McCabe, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Alcatel-Lucent, devolves into this subject in some detail in a recent blog, Google’s power to impact network signaling. In fact, while Google Cloud Messages provide an example in the blog, the companies recent Mobile Device Report goes into the topic regarding the impact of the top mobile apps on signaling in greater detail.
Google Cloud Messaging for Android, according to the search giant, is a service that allows data to be sent from the App Engine or other backends to users’ Android-powered devices. That could involve the transmission of a lightweight push notification telling an Android application that there is new data to be accessed from the server (like a movie uploaded by a friend) or a message containing up to 4kb of payload data (so apps like IM can consume the message directly).
Such apps and interactions, however, can have a notable and negative impact on both mobile networks and the endpoints connected to them, according to McCabe. And, in the case of Google Cloud Messaging for Android there is ample evidence it already has.
The study by Alcatel-Lucent indicated there was a dramatic increase in signaling traffic from Jan. 12 to Feb. 19 due to the Google Cloud Messaging application. That involved a Jan. 12 signaling increase from 17 percent to 20 percent. Then, on Feb. 4, such signaling went from 21 percent to a peak 23 percent. Signaling relative to this Google application returned to expected levels on Feb. 19, according to Alcatel-Lucent, which added that these variations were not due to any increases in active subscribers.
The reason why Alcatel-Lucent is highlighting this is to increase awareness of the challenges for the signaling network and the mobile network at large, as well as a drain on related user endpoints (in this case Android smartphones) that the explosion in applications is causing.
“Although a rise in signaling share from 17 percent to 23 percent on a single application may appear rather innocuous at first, it does have a significant impact on mobile networks,” writes McCabe, based on information derived from Alcatel-Lucent’s the Motive Wireless Network Guardian for mobile network analysis. “During this period of signaling increase, an average erosion of 6 percent in overall signaling capacity was experienced across the networks that were analyzed. This is a costly loss that can place a large strain on radio resources, and it can even cause outages in locations that were already operating close to capacity — or where there was a dominant proportion of Android users.”
Concentration of the impact of the increasingly app-centric use of the network tends to look almost exclusively at traffic in general. However, in order for all of those apps to work with a high quality of service (QoS) the signaling network needs to be able to understand accommodate the spikes the various types of apps can cause. It is why having network visibility into app impact on signaling is so important.
]]>There a few things more confounding to mobile service providers in hotly contested markets than missing out on opportunities to generate more revenues and profits from what have been lightly used services. This is particularly the case in the United States where unlike much of the world where prepaid services are the norm, it is estimated that roughly 19 percent of U.S. subscribers avail themselves of these services.
That said, and despite some cultural and addressable market challenges, U.S. mobile services providers can change the game in their favor as prepaid is already experiencing significant growth due to a variety of factors, and if done correctly is poised according to research firm Yankee Group is to grow over the next few years faster than the overall telecommunications.Source: Yankee Group North America Mobile Forecast, December 2012
As Barbara Sampson, Senior Market Manager, Policy & Charging (P&C) Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent highlighted in a recent TechZine posting, Make the most of prepaid mobile plan growth, based on extensive research by Alcatel-Lucent found that prepaid suffers from:
To help U.S. operators fulfill and hopefully exceed the forecasts, SurePay® is Alcatel-Lucent’s solution that ensures there is a prepaid charging system in place that is flexible, scalable, and exceeds service provider and their customers’ expectations.
This is part of a series of postings (see below) relating to what options SurePay provides that U.S. mobile service providers can employ to maximize the prepaid opportunities. However, as a introduction to the detail in those postings it is instructive to look at what SurePay is and does.
Prepaid market realities and the role of SurePay
What research has confirmed is that mobile subscribers want to build their own price plans based on their demographics and usage behavior. Subscribers want to control all elements within a “custom” package, such as fixed minute increments, SMS, and data volumes. They are also demanding control over what applications they subscribe to and how much they pay. Legacy charging infrastructures are limited. However, with SurePay, operators can create and deploy marketing, user, and operation interfaces that define and modify price plans and promotions. It effectively guides and supports operators as they create, provision, and update SurePay tariff data, including bundles, tariff plans, and discounts.
Additionally, SurePay lets operators:
With SurePay, mobile operators can simultaneously offer a variety of charging options for a wide range of content types. And, SurePay’s flexibility and scalability for prepaid payment support can also be effectively expanded to real-time postpaid customers.
SurePay allows unified management of prepaid and postpaid subscribers with one system that handles convergent rating and charging. This also includes hybrid systems, which are defined as a combination of both prepaid and postpaid services over a single device. For example, it can accommodate a single handset where business calls are on a postpaid plan and personal calls are on a prepaid plan.
By supporting multiple payment modes across a single converged charging and rating engine, there is no need for separate rate support infrastructures. This results in reduced operational, service delivery, integration, and maintenance costs. SurePay also configures new tariff plans only once for both prepaid and postpaid subscribers.
A big benefit here is that SurePay supports shared data plans for consumer and enterprise subscribers. This lets multiple devices share a pool of data allowances and stimulates mobile data usage, thereby expanding the operator’s target base beyond prepaid customers.
Source: Alcatel-Lucent
SurePay’s high reliability, flexibility, and scalability encourage innovation. Faster setup of new prepaid mobile business plans and models help meet changing customer requirements and new market trends/drivers. SurePay service bundles and packages can also help mobile operators control costs, ensure customer stickiness, and generate additional revenues.
An example of this is SurePay’s Tariff Admin Tool. This service bundle provides marketing and operations interfaces to define and modify price plans and promotions, as well as test and verify a tariff plan offline prior to market rollout. It also provides the user interface to easily define and modify price plans and promotions. And it guides and supports mobile operators in the quick creation and provisioning of SurePay tariff data, including bundles, tariff plans, and discounts.
Finally, as with all prepaid plans, the customer knows how much they are paying and how close they are to reaching their limits. For those trying to watch carefully the amount of discretionary income they can allocate to mobile services, which for most households have become the real-time platform of choice for interacting, this is a real differentiated value, particularly for parental controls in limiting the use of children.
In short, prepaid is not just become an option, but its attraction can be enhanced if service providers have a platform that gives the customer several options that fit their unique requirements. After all, one size does not fit all, and customer choice translates into customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Related Links
Unfortunately though, many large enterprises are unable to take advantage of advances in technology due to old or outdated infrastructure and ICT technology silos. In addition, being locked in to one technology vendor often stymies the enterprise from being able to update the tools necessary to increase employee productivity.
For instance, something as simple as developing and deploying a new app is often a frustrating experience, as the enterprise must submit a request to the technology vendor for a new app to be developed, then wait until the vendor adds it to their development queue before finding out when to expect it. This often takes months, if not longer.
In the meantime, instead of waiting for the new app, many employees take the “shadow IT” route. They download rogue (i.e., non-IT-supported) apps that will allow them to move forward with at least some of the functionality they seek, even without IT support. While this work-around may provide some degree of productivity enhancement for the employee, wouldn’t it be better if the enterprise was able to either plug in existing best-of-breed third-party apps or develop and deploy its own apps without having to wait for a vendor to become involved?
Alcatel-Lucent thinks so, which is one of the reasons our new solution, Rapport™ for Large Enterprise, is generating so much interest. Rapport is a private cloud-based communications and collaboration solution designed specifically for the large enterprise.
With Rapport, the communications network becomes a platform for innovation, enabling the creation of new “contextual communications”, where fundamental services such as voice, chat, video conferencing and sharing become functions available to any application, website or connected object. “Rapport liberates large enterprises from the communications technology silos and proprietary vendor offerings that IT departments need to contend with,” according to Bhaskar Gorti, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Platforms business.
With the Rapport platform, application developers are able to access the rich set of client and network open application programming interfaces (APIs) and simple software development kits (SDKs), allowing quick and easy development and deployment of communications services. This accessibility allows the enterprise to deliver innovative communications features to apps, websites and other connected objects, enhancing them with a communications-enabled, contextual communications experience.
Enabling Contextual Communications
Business today is global and 24/7. As such, employees need to be able to communicate with their peers, business associates or clients wherever they are, on whatever device they are using.
One of the most recent developments contributing to this is contextual communications – essentially, having the communications features you need embedded in the tools you use. However, in order to provide these functions to employees, large enterprises need to be able to quickly develop and launch these new contextual applications. Rapport open APIs make it easy to embed real-time communications functions into devices, applications and websites.
If you’re not familiar with contextual communications, here are a few examples of what they might enable your business to do:
Rapport’s REST-based APIs let applications developers create uniquely differentiated communications experiences, depending on the business requirements. This helps large enterprises better serve their employees and customers by building these communications services into the applications, websites and other connected objects they use.
Rapport also provides the enterprise with the option of either developing and deploying their own apps using the Rapport open APIs, or plugging in best-of-breed apps to help meet the needs of employees for the latest services, whether in the office or on the move. With Rapport APIs, it’s about the future of communications.
Unlock Service Innovation
Because Rapport open APIs provide easy access to rich communication and collaboration features, innovation now becomes part of corporate communications. Use Rapport APIs to add ‘communications as a feature’ to existing services and WebRTC client libraries to extend your services to the web. Create compelling new contextual applications with the quality of service users want. Rapport also offers large enterprises the use of our sandbox, a fast prototyping environment, to pre-validate and demo your application and WebRTC client with our Rapport cloud test platform, leveraging IMS technology.
With Rapport, instead of waiting on a vendor, application developers are able to develop and deploy the new communications features, services, applications and innovations the enterprise needs. By tapping into capabilities such as HD voice and video, conferencing, interactive voice and rich communications, developers can now build compelling new communication-enabled apps, helping to increase employee productivity and user satisfaction.
Summary
As you see, Rapport open APIs help the large enterprise break free of technology silos and vendor lock-in by freeing them to develop and deploy the contextual communications services they need, as they need them – instead of waiting on a vendor to tell them what will be available and when. By using Rapport’s open APIs, large enterprises are now able to develop and deploy apps in a real-time manner. What once took months or years can now literally be done in a period of weeks.
For more information on Rapport for Large Enterprise and how it can help your business, please visit the Alcatel-Lucent Rapport for Large Enterprise website or contact your local Alcatel-Lucent sales office.
One of the big promises of UC was consolidating a range of disparate communications technologies and bringing them together both for a single communications experience, and also for easier deployment. Yet, the downside of this consolidation has been perhaps an over-reliance on a single vendor solution. This concentration in a single UC vendor it is limiting the ability of enterprises to adopt the latest technology as it emerges, instead having to wait on their provider or record.
With one vendor providing the entire communications technology, an inconsistency in quality also is emerging, suggests a recent blog post by Brendan Ziolo, Head of Large Enterprise Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent, 5 reasons unified communications is hurting large enterprises.
“When there were only a few communications functions, one vendor was able to provide a competent platform for each,” noted Ziolo. “Today however, there are so many options that vendors naturally have functions they excel at and other functions that are far behind what is available in the market.”
Further, UC is reducing the control that enterprise has over its communications technology, and some firms are finding it a challenge to integrate UC platforms after a merger; each firm is deeply embedded with a single solution, and woe to those firms that merge with another and these UC solutions don’t line up. This is more the case with UC than when a range of technologies were used and there was more leeway for mixing and matching.
“Large enterprises are looking for a new alternative to the current unified communications solution,” posits Ziolo. “Many are beginning to look towards more open, cloud-based frameworks that eliminate the challenges associated with vendor lock in and free up the organization to select the best-of-breed apps that meet their business requirements.”
Alcatel-Lucent looks at this and other next steps in the unified communications journey in a recent white paper, Moving beyond Unified Communications. unified communications
UC definitely has delivered advantages such as ease of use. But like most things, it also has come at a cost that wasn’t immediately apparent but as the white paper explains there is a path forward to resolve the problems.
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I just bought an Android tablet after living exclusively in the Apple iOS world for the past couple years. The cost of the cheaper Android tablet was great, and my geek side surely will enjoy the customization options in the days ahead. However, what I do not look forward to are potential security issues.
All of the reports in recent years have exposed the fact that the Android environment is more susceptible to being compromised than IoS, however, recently even that is becoming a matter of degree as cracks in the Apple armor have been exposed. The one as somebody who is in the tech industry and tries to be vigilant that should make us Android users be somewhat concerned is the Stagefright vulnerability which hopefully will not make it into the wild.
To be frank, Stagefright is pretty scary. Anyone with an Android mobile device who is vulnerable to the exploit should be thinking about it, and that’s roughly close to 1 billion devices at last count. What makes Stagefright so frightening is that it isn’t just a malware exploit that cause significant grief. In what might be considered a perverse flip side of ease-of-use, Stagefright is unfortunately about ease-of-infection. It loads itself onto an Android device with nothing more than an MMS message. A message with a carefully crafted media attachment can infect the Android device without any user intervention.
As noted in a recent Alcatel-Lucent blog post, Android Vulnerability Stagefright Highlights Need for Increased Focus on Security, by Kevin McNamee, Director, Motive Security Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, vulnerabilities like this are a ringing endorsement for network-based malware detection systems such as Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive Security Guardian. Putting aside the highlighting of Alcatel-Lucent’s unique offering in this space, McNamee does make a compelling argument as to why despite device-based anti-malware, the only way to effectively stop Stagefright and similar types of malware attacks is at the network level.
As McNamee explains, most malware communicates over the network, between the device and the hackers’ command and control servers. It is this communications that only a network provider can detect and respond to quickly. He also notes, the issues with Android make it that much more important for service providers—caught amid Google, the device manufacturers and the end consumer in terms of distribution of updates that will protect the devices—to leverage their positions as positive men in the middle.
They can identify malware flows across the network and alert users if a device has become infected. This is good for keeping users safe rapidly and also goof for the operator as traffic from malware-infected mobile devices can quickly become a network burden on several levels bringing service down to intolerable levels or even a halt.
The interesting thing about the attention that has been paid the Stagefright vulnerability is that it not only shined a light on a nasty security vulnerability that we all must be aware of, but also does illustrate an opportunity for the mobile service provider to become part of a holistic security solution for the mobile subscriber. After all, such network-based malware detection can be not just a revenue opportunity for operators, but one that subscribers are likely to willingly pay a premium for.
While most customers don’t think about mobile device security now, it would be easy enough to change that with a marketing campaign and a few particularly horrendous malware outbreaks such as Stagefright. Especially if the industry has an actionable response like a network-based security service subscribers could purchase.
My new Android tablet is nice so far—but it does have its downsides. Security is one of them, but it appears that with a little vigilance on my part, and that of my service provider if they are willing, that I can rest a bit easier with my decision to switch from iOS.
]]>Let’s face it, most large enterprises are stuck in a rut when it comes to unified communications and collaboration (UCC) solutions – and a 20th century rut at that. While these enterprises would like to be more in control of their UCC and ICT infrastructure, most are not sure where or how to begin.
Large enterprises typically choose a UC solution vendor based on one primary fact – that the vendor told them they could provide everything they needed. From an enterprise perspective that makes sense. Having only one vendor eliminates additional budget requests and cycles, reduces the number of people involved, and effectively streamlines the operation.
The problem is that choosing one vendor effectively locks the enterprise into a proprietary technology silo with that vendor. Sure, the vendor may be able to provide the tools the enterprise needs, but at what price, using what technology and in what timeframe? Instead of the enterprise choosing the technologies that it needs, the vendor is now effectively in control and dictates which technologies will be used by the large enterprise.
Business in the 21st century is dynamic. New technologies, tools and applications are developed every hour of every day that provide more new and useful UCC features and functions, enabling employees to be more productive than ever before. However, in order to stay competitive, large enterprises need to be able to react quickly to take advantage of those changes.
Being locked in to one vendor does not allow the large enterprise to react or adapt quickly to changes. In addition, older PBX systems are not capable of handling the demands made on them. Due to this, the status quo prevails and enterprise communications and collaboration are stuck in the 20th century, which often results in employee frustration.
To get around these limitations, employees often go outside of the formal IT system and bring/use their own communications devices (BYOD) or use 3rd-party apps that are not supported by IT (aka “shadow IT”). Unfortunately, these workarounds often create even more problems than they were trying to solve. However, thanks to Alcatel-Lucent’s new Rapport™ for Large Enterprise solution, the status quo can now be changed and enterprises can join the 21st century.
With Rapport, large enterprises now have the ability to react quickly to changing business conditions, break vendor lock-in, and provide their employees with the communication and collaboration features and capabilities they really need; when, where and how they need them. The large enterprise takes back control of their own communications infrastructure, eliminates shadow IT, and embeds the communications and collaboration features and functions needed into any Internet-connected device. Rapport effectively places a communications engine in the enterprise data center so that the enterprise now controls their own communications and collaboration and are no longer at the mercy of a vendor.
Rapport allows the large enterprise to replace their existing hardware-based or other type of solution (such as PBXs, audio conferencing equipment, soft clients, etc.) with a private cloud-based software solution. With proven integration of leading, open enterprise soft clients, desk phones and apps for full PBX features and more, Rapport provides full-service telecom network capabilities (including global routing, session management and fully-featured communications services) through one communications backend. The large enterprise manages their ICT infrastructure and uses their own IP trunking (instead of a telco’s) to deliver the unified communication and collaboration services their employees need across the enterprise.
Rapport uses open APIs and SDKs, allowing the large enterprise to easily integrate existing applications or develop and roll out new apps and services in a short period of time. No more submitting a request to a vendor, waiting for them to enter it into their development queue and then finally being told how long it will be before you receive it.
In short, Rapport is what large enterprises have been waiting for – a private cloud-based solution that lets them control the features and functions their employees receive.
For more information on Rapport for Large Enterprise and how it can help your business, please visit the Alcatel-Lucent Rapport for Large Enterprise website or contact your local Alcatel-Lucent sales office.
]]>I crossed the English Channel to spend a few days in Ipswich. Not to explore its beautiful port but to participate in the hackathon organized by BT, hosted by its Innovation Hub in Adastral Park (7th to 9th July).
Hackathons are flourishing these days. These are fast, dynamic, creative
events in which software developers collaborate intensively around ideation and prototyping with specific Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and on dedicated themes such as mobile apps, internet of things, home automation, connected car, etc.
BT leveraged our Rapport APIs and Rapport Sandbox to run their first hackahon. Rapport is our communications software platform, used by service providers and large enterprises to deliver voice, video and messaging.
The first objective of the hackathon was to educate the BT community about the power of Rapport APIs. The second objective was to demonstrate how BT’s Future Voice (FV) platform, equipped with Alcatel-Lucent Rapport APIs and opened up to keen BT developers, can easily create new value added services to improve the user experience and generate new revenue streams. The third objective was to test the process for BT’s external hackathons.
More than 100 BT developers, architects, usability managers and product managers, competing as 10 teams and supported on-site by experts from Alcatel-Lucent, worked for 3 days with passion, energy and a great deal of creativity. Using our Rapport Sandbox’s rich set of WebRTC client APIs and network APIs, the teams defined, designed and delivered many innovative service concept demos and prototypes! The winning teams built a "Safe Home" service prototype which brings together the Internet Of Things (IoT), and more particularly the home connected objects, with consumer communications.
Many senior BT executives visited the hackathon, including Karl Penaluna, President of 21C Global Networks and Computing Infrastructure at BT. Tim Shaw, BT's Director of Voice & Multimedia said "The Hackathon has been a great success. We have driven a change in our understanding of the potential of communications and have built working prototypes that demonstrate the power of APIs. We will use this understanding to drive the value of our propositions to truly exceed what the customer expects from how they communicate."
Thanks to Liam Connors from BT for the outstanding organization of the event! We are now looking forward BT’s next hackathon for external developers.
From left to right:
G. Duboué (Alcatel-Lucent)
K. Penaluna (BT)
T. Shaw (BT)
R. Baker (Alcatel-Lucent)
M. Duffy (Alcatel-Lucent)
L. Connors (BT)
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But there are some options mobile carriers might want to consider to help keep their subscribers’ data plan bills more manageable, and keep their customers happier. One way to allow for that is by introducing sponsored data charging programs.
Sponsored data charging programs are an effective way mobile carriers can help their subscribers justify the cost of connectivity, while growing their own user bases and expanding their ecosystems to include more application providers and marketers. That’s the word from Barbara Sampson, senior marketing manager for policy and charging PLM marketing, and Thomas King, manager of the policy and charging portfolio, at Alcatel-Lucent. The two wrote a recent TechZine posting, Operators benefit from sponsored data charging, that details how mobile operators can prosper with these types of programs.
Such programs, Alcatel-Lucent calls them Smart Plans, enable mobile subscribers to enjoy connectivity without being charged for it on their monthly plan.
There are various models of sponsored data charging. The zero rating model, for example, has an application provider or other third-party pay for subscriber data consumed by the specific app or service. A second example would involve a marketer providing a subscriber with a data reward for making a mobile purchase or trying a new service.
However, introducing these kinds of new options involves a bit of work on the billing front. That’s why Alcatel-Lucent and Aquto have joined forces to address sponsored data charging. The partnership involves Aquto leveraging Alcatel-Lucent’s SurePay platform with its own monetization platform to enable mobile carriers to support sponsored data models.
Aquto offers both cloud-based sponsorships to enable data rewards and zero rating, and a service provider user-engagement application option, which provides a destination at which subscribers can discover apps and services and get advertiser offers for data rewards and/or zero rating.
A huge benefit here is that operators can build service plans that give customers visibility over all of the devices that us data plans which enable them keep track of usage and let them top off their accounts wherever they may be. Mobile service providers can thus not only obtain news revenues from sponsors but are positioned to provide customers a more compelling and understandable user experience.
]]>The Internet and the smartphone have altered customer expectations related to service. They have both elevated the requirement for fast results in terms of response times, and they have made consumers more comfortable with finding answers themselves using the devices in their hands and the information that is now at their fingertips.
Meanwhile, communications providers continue to expand the ever-growing number of services they offer to consumers. That now includes an array of Internet access, mobile, and TV services. The growing number of CSP services and customers also increases the potential for more help desk inquiries.
Six to 53 percent of consumers across Brazil, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. reported they had issues with their high-speed Internet, mobile, or TV services within the last six months, according to recent research done by Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive unit. This illustrates the potential for CSP help desk overload, given the four countries have nearly 500 million mobile subscribers, more than 164 million Internet subscribers, and nearly 200 million TV subscribers. That means if just 10 percent of these users have service issues in any given six-month period, CSPs in these countries could have to work to help 14 million dissatisfied consumers each month, according to the Motive research paper “Toward self-service: Empowering connected consumers to help themselves”.
While the help desk is the primary channel for helping customers with their problems, mobile apps can also help do the job, reducing costs, lowering the strain on help desks and improving customer experiences through the channel in the process, and responding to the trend toward customer self-service. Indeed, as the Motive white paper explains, CSP self-service applications in some cases have reduced help desk calls by up to 75 percent and lowered the frequency of expensive truck rolls by more than a fourth.
However, the white paper goes on to note that self-service app adoption can be a challenge. Indeed, it says, typical adoption of such apps is 30 percent or less. It is why CSPs need to redefine the customer experience leveraging self-help.
A recent blog, 10 strategies for communications service providers looking to offer appealing self-service apps, by Greg Owens, Senior Director, Customer Experience Solutions Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent, however, offers tips on how CSPs can successfully introduce and drive adoption for customer self-service apps.
His suggestions include:
Self-help if not done properly can be as if not more frustrating than dealing with an agent who either is not skilled, or is not empowered to solve your problem or answer your question. However, done correctly it not only reduces expense by significantly cutting contact center call volumes, but also can be a valuable tool in actually improving the customer experience.
]]>Indeed, it is being viewed strategically as a way for service providers to distinguish their services on the basis of Quality of Experience (QoE) from 3G and OTT voice apps. It is also seen as providing competitive advantage because of its ability to enable end users to seamlessly move from a voice call to a video call, or shift from one device to another in the midst of the conversation. It is why interest in accelerating VoLTE deployments is so high.
However, network transformations are not easy. VoLTE deployment and operations is an interesting case in point. It brings unique challenges for service providers related to policy control, charging and Diameter signaling control. Steffen Paulus, Director of Product Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent has some interesting insights worth sharing on the need for integrated policy, charging and Diameter signaling in a virtualized solution, as the path forward for VoLTE success. This is particularly relevant in light of Alcatel-Lucent’s recent launch of its End-to-End Voice over LTE (E2E VoLTE) solution that is an integral part of the Rapport multimedia real-time communications platform which has been architected specifically to me service provider and enterprise needs.
Paulus has a few tips and suggestions on how to get VoLTE rollouts optimized in those three critical and interrelated areas of policy, charging and signaling.
The first one concerns the value of network analytics and personalized offers as the means for service providers to achieve nice adoption rates when launching VoLTE. Network intelligence can be leveraged with the application of sophisticated analytics to understand which markets and customers will benefit most. This translates into the ability to offer self-service capabilities to customers and enables service providers to proactively target specific customer segments based on rich contextual information and be more responsive to changing market conditions.
In fact, the ability for the sharing of analytics across lines-of-business, assuming part of the network transformation includes the upgrading to a more flexible and adaptable underlying rating and charging capabilities, is critical for enabling rapid competitive responses. The reason is obvious but important, creative marketing can only work when new packages and business models are ready for prime time.
Second, when it comes to creating compelling VoLTE experiences is the getting the policy and signaling plumbing VoLTE-ready for ensuring the QoE. On this score Alcatel-Lucent with deep expertise in VoLTE implementations worldwide, knows that VoLTE can expose significant shortcomings of legacy Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) solutions. Plus, there be limitations in scalability and performance, this can include features such as full geo-redundancy, session binding and correlation.
The scalability issue is not just one for handling the data traffic expected from VoLTE adoption. A surge in VoLTE subscribers is also going to significantly increase in diameter–based IMS-related control plane traffic. As Paulus explained, with this surge will comes a need to properly manage that signaling traffic, offer load-balancing and enable interworking capabilities. He explained, “This area is often referred to as diameter signaling control (DSC), and in combination with the IMS and policy & charging solution is a critical piece of the puzzle. “
Last and not least are the challenges for VoLTE regarding cloud readiness along with the value of using network functions virtualization (NFV) as foundational for next generation service creation and delivery. Part of this is based on the value of moving to software defined networking (SDN) and NFV capabilities in general as the most cost effective and agile way to run a network going forward. As if not more important is the ability for service providers to me fast-to-market, fast-in-the-market and incredibly fast to accommodate changes in market conditions be they competitor or user driven.
As Alcatel-Lucent points out, and recent studies have confirmed, most operators have not upgraded their policy engines and moved to NFV to enable a scalable and high-speed data layer that can be used to quickly create and manage differentiated data plans based on real-time information about subscriber preferences, needs and lifestyles. This is critical in a world where demands will increase for the unpredictability associated with the ebb and flow networking and signaling flows caused by the introduction/need for more flexible data plans and such things as providing real-time subscriber notifications about data usage.
Where all of this leads in terms of VoLTE success is that each one of the tools for success needs to be well-orchestrated and integrated to achieve, scalability and agility to assure both service quality and speedy responsiveness. All of this places a premium on having an integrated solution that incorporates all of the tools necessary for the operational efficiency and effectiveness that achieving optimal VoLTE demands.
]]>The customer experience has always mattered, but its importance has grown in recent years. This has been driven by increased global competition, including the almost instant availability of alternations, and the rising expectations by fickle and informed consumer. Yet, cable operators have a long way to travel if they want to deliver the customer experience (CX) that consumers demand.
The Temkin Group’s Q3 2014 survey of 10,000 US consumers’ opinions about goods and services registered the lowest ranking average Net Promoter Score (NPS) for pay TV providers, a telling statistic. Internet service providers did almost as poorly, coming in only one position higher.
“As technology innovations drive shifts in consumer behavior and open new service opportunities, operators must start eliminating pain points,” stressed Alcatel-Lucent’s Nicholas Cadwgan in a recent TechZine article, Cable MSOs transform the customer experience. “This includes any obstacles that will impede their ability to launch and provide adequate care and quality assurance for those services.”
Cadwgan lays out four customer experience management (CEM) areas that cable operators should focus on.
“This means operators must have comprehensive control of and visibility into every device and every service delivered to those devices from their networks,” he noted.
2. Basic customer service has to be improved, including help desks, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, and self-help portals.
“To provide CSRs all the information they need to reduce resolution time, the new CEM platform must have powerful analytics capabilities in conjunction with data-gathering that reaches across all devices and systems,” suggested Cadwgan.
Analytics systems need to be able to track and identify issues based on information relevant to whatever access link a particular user is on, and the operator’s CX system must be able to aggregate and present all relevant information from a user-centric viewpoint.
The customer experience matters, and cable operators better start taking it seriously if CX statistics are to be believed.
For more of Cadwgan’s thought about opportunities transformation can afford cable operators you are invited to listen to the following podcast on the subject.
Service providers are seeing an increasing number of applications moving outside of their control. At the same time, they are facing stiff competition within their geographical markets. Developing new revenue streams has become a top priority. As a result, many service providers have invested in business intelligence systems to help them figure out these new offerings and how to win and keep customers.
Interestingly, despite this need and a sense of urgency most service providers are ignoring their greatest asset: Their network. The network provides more visibility into subscriber usage and trends than Google, Yahoo and Facebook combined, according to a recent Alcatel-Lucent Motive posting on the value of big networks analytics (BNA). They believe it is time for this visibility to be unlocked and put to work.
Alcatel-Lucent offers a way to leverage network data for new service creation through its Motive Big Network Analytics offering.
The Alcatel-Lucent Motive BNA for service creation provides a suite of analytics-enabled solutions focused on deriving immediate value from the network data while positioning service providers within a big data infrastructure. The objective is to unlock greater network data intelligence for operations, engineering, planning, customer care, customer experience and marketing organizations.
The Motive BNA solution offers more than 7000 off-the-shelf network analytics reports as part of its analytics package. It consists of the:
In terms of functionality provided, the WNG taps into a network-based data source in a non-intrusive, real-time and vendor agnostic manner and currently supports multiple mobile technologies (2G, 3G, and LTE). The SG leverages analytics to examine communication patterns and detect malware operating on subscriber mobile devices.
All of this combines m.IQ6 network data, circuit-switched (CS) voice and SMS data sources, as well as IT/OSS/BSS data such as subscriber data plans, profile, and billing information, and offers it up in a big data-enabled analytics architecture. The big network analytics solution architecture then uses analytics output as the foundation for wider solutions by exposing this intelligence to external systems.
The result enables service providers to see what fuels traffic growth, and determine whether the largest contributor to growth is new subscribers, existing subscribers using more data. It helps show the relationship between new and popular applications rolled out a service provider, additional roamer traffic, and recent device promotion, helping to clearly understand the consumer and what is working.
Business intelligence solutions play their role, but service providers shouldn’t forget their best asset for obtaining valuable business intelligence is their network. After all it is the source of data that can be brought to bear on customer retention and growth.
]]>From original Alcatel-Lucent TechZine posting
A Wi-Fi first strategy can help multi-system operators (MSOs) remain competitive in the evolving marketplace. Wi-Fi enabled devices default to using the cable operator’s Wi-Fi network for voice, and cellular equipped devices can switch to cellular when out of Wi-Fi range.
Although nuances in the business drivers for adopting such a strategy vary by region globally, this model turns the traditional cellular voice paradigm on its head.
Just like other communications or media industries, MSOs face a dynamic and extremely competitive market. As a result, in EMEA, they have evolved their end-user offerings to embrace market-leading fixed high speed internet access, Wi-Fi connectivity, and bundled mobile cellular services using mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) partnerships.
As the pace of change continues to accelerate, subscribers have made a widespread move to Wi-Fi enabled smartphones and tablets. A European commission study stated that 71% of all EU wireless data traffic in 2012 was delivered to smartphones and tablets using Wi-Fi. This is expected to rise to 78% by 2016.
European MSOs have already invested in Wi-Fi and offer data connectivity services in and out of the home. This not only is a customer retention strategy, but also lets MSOs build out further value added services (VAS) and can reduce data costs of their MVNO agreements. So if we now contemplate the delivery of voice to these Wi-Fi enabled devices, how do we get started?
Existing Mobility Assets
MSOs in EMEA already have different types of Wi-Fi hotspot locations:
These Wi-Fi hotspot networks have been mainly used to enhance customer experience by extending broadband access outside the home, and to help provide TV Everywhere services.
Some MSOs have also invested in 4G spectrum and tentatively contemplated this to extend fixed services outside of their hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network footprint. If MSOs decide to take a more traditional approach to 4G and deploy mobile coverage using small cells, their own networks can provide backhaul for this traffic.
In addition, most MSOs in EMEA have – or are building – a full MVNO (F-MVNO) network that enables them to deliver cellular-based mobile services to their customers. The costs of maintaining a mobile data and voice partnership with a mobile network operator (MNO) are high. In response, some MSOs use their own Wi-Fi investments to steer (also known as offload) data connections from the MNO cellular network to improve the MVNO business case as well as improve customer experience.
A new opportunity
Both Android OS and Apple iOS recently added native dialer capabilities to their phones’ operating systems. This development paves the way for MSOs to not only offer new voice over Wi-Fi services to tablet and smartphone users, but also steer their own MVNO voice smartphone traffic to use Wi-Fi. This directly impacts MSO´s bundled mobility offers and increases competitiveness, while also managing costs.
Most EMEA MSOs now have assets in place to build a sustainable mobility strategy. Some can combine Wi-Fi and 4G small cell networks with F-MVNO agreements to provide both entertainment and communication services to their subscribers at work, at home, and on the move throughout the day.Being able to control voice communications across multiple wireless assets allows MSOs to adopt a “Wi-Fi first” approach. Subscriber voice calls automatically use MSO Wi-Fi networks. Where the device also has cellular capabilities, calls connect to cellular only when Wi-Fi is unavailable. This concept is also important for converged MNO/MSO operators, who can use all their mobility assets to create a heterogeneous network (HetNet).
Necessary ingredients for a Wi-Fi first approach
1. Quality of Experience
MSOs are already familiar with voice. They deliver fixed services over their HFC networks. Voice, unlike most data services, is a real-time application that requires quality of service to avoid jitter and delay. For MSO Wi-Fi networks to be competitive, the subscribers’ quality of experience using MSO Wi-Fi based voice services must be on par with that of traditional mobile carriers.
Similarly, the end-user experience with the Wi-Fi service mustn’t be any more cumbersome than subscribers are accustomed to. People just want to be able to use their phone without hassles. They don’t want to have to worry about which access technology they are using or perform manual changes as they move in and out of different coverage zones. This means MSO platforms and systems have to be completely automated:
Figure 2 shows a possible high-level Wi-Fi first architecture, including:
Many MSOs are already thinking about deploying IMS capabilities as part of their overall voice renewal plans. Including voice over Wi-Fi and other value-added services such as video calling are a natural fit. Figure 2 also demonstrates that beyond Wi-Fi first schemes, IMS can eventually replace the MVNO operation (2G/3G) as well as the fixed access network.
2. Mobile device manager (MDM)
An MDM system can be used to provision both iOS as Android devices, allowing MSOs to offer cellular, Wi-Fi and hybrid service plans.
The concept can use embedded MDM clients on user devices that allow operator settings to be installed, including Wi-Fi settings, usernames and passwords, and SIP settings.
In addition, the MDM would enable the MSO´s service to assume control of (or replace) the subscriber devices’ native dialers. The dialer ultimately must be capable of both Wi-Fi and circuit-switched calling, along with handovers between Wi-Fi, LTE and 3G domains to create a seamless user experience.
3. IMS
IMS technology can be used as the call control solution for voice calls. In the Wi-Fi first approach described here, IMS will handle all calls originating from the user device while in the packet-switched domain (4G, Wi-Fi). IMS delivers SMS messages to the device while in the Wi-Fi/LTE/IMS network using an IP short message gateway. It can also allow other IP communication services, such as video calling, to be added easily. IMS is particularly helpful when services are delivered by other access technologies, including 2G/3G, 4G, and fixed access.
Next Steps for Wi-Fi first
Creating a sustainable MSO mobility strategy is complex, and building a Wi-Fi first scheme as part of this strategy will require planning for considerations such as:
Once these questions have been answered, MSOs are well placed to grasp the current market opportunity of offering voice services via Wi-Fi and leveraging a Wi-Fi first strategy to help remain competitive in the evolving marketplace.
To contact the author or request additional information, please send an email to techzine.editor@alcatel-lucent.com.
]]>So what has changed in twelve months? Here are some highlights, for me, of some great presentations and scintillating conversations that took place over the course of three days in the shadow of Westminster.
For starters, I heard quite a few references to Customer Effort Score (CES); nearly as many as I did of net promoter score (NPS), at the 2014 edition of this event. First published by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) in 2010, “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” was a ground-breaking article that claimed you can best win customer loyalty by solving a customer's problem. Plain and simple.
This leads perfectly into the second topic that I heard discussed quite often: self-service or self-care. Various CSPs -- including Comcast, AT&T and O2 (Telefonica UK) -- showed examples of applications that can be used to order new services, change billing information and troubleshoot issues remotely. This aligns perfectly to the notion of the Customer Effort Score because the original HBR article introduced a number of key ideas, including one very important one: making it easy.
CSPs highlighted the benefits of self-care to their organizations, ranging from removing pressure from call centres and saving money, to motivating satisfied customers to make additional purchases.
Proactive action and/or communications was also cited by a number of CSPs as growing in importance. Whether it’s notifying customers on the status of infrastructure projects, network upgrades or outages, being more transparent was an approach that seems to be gathering momentum.
One CSP talked about the importance of correlating customer calls with known network problems, then providing updates on how repairs were coming along. They created a web page where people could register an issue -- even if it wasn’t worth calling about – that resulted in a heat map for all customers to see. In the case of a recent infrastructure upgrade, customer could see exactly what was being done, when/where it was being done and how long it would take.
Another CSP talked about the importance of monitoring network quality and fixing issues proactively, before most customers even notice that there is a problem. According to this speaker, 43% of their customer complaints are related to the quality of the service being delivered, with 17% of complaints being caused by the help desk, 10% by payment issues and the remaining 30% from five undisclosed areas combined.
By closely monitoring their networks, collecting analytics and sharing it with various departments (e.g., marketing, network planning, etc.), they can resolve issues that might affect thousands of people and/or reach out to customers proactively, when issues are known but cannot be fixed immediately.
The bottom line: consumers don’t care about how complex it is to deliver communications services in the 21st century. Instead, they want their service provider to proactively solve issues before they cause disruptions, provide them with the information and tools needed to be self-sufficient and, if they do call the Help Desk as a last resort, they expect the person at the other end of the line to be able to solve their issue quickly, efficiently and right the first time. Now, if only it was easy as it sounds.
Luckily, Motive CX solutions are designed to help our CSP customers provide better services to their customers; the modern consumer. We can make sure that you get that information to the right people at the right time. And the end result is great customer service.
]]>Mobile video is very popular. In fact, it is predicted to become very much more so in the future with the expectation that it will account for up to 69 percent of total mobile traffic by 2018. Demand is driven by subscribers who want to take content like news programs and favourite TV series with them wherever they go.
As discussed on the Wilson Street blog by Habib Nouira, Product Marketing Manager, Alcatel-Lucent, LTE broadcast is enabling operators and internet service providers (ISPs) to meet this need. They are also exploring how the technology can expand their coverage areas, reduce customer churn, cut costs, and grow revenue.
As Nouira explains, often LTE broadcast is talked about just in terms of helping operators save money on bandwidth when delivering multimedia content, especially video. But this technology enhances the user experience and benefits operators in other ways, too.
For example, it positively impacts operator business models by making it possible to deliver linear content broadcast, meaning continuous, scheduled television streamed over wireless networks. Rather than the bandwidth expense involved with unicast for in-house TV service, mobile operators are turning to LTE broadcast.
A related benefit of 4G LTE broadcast for mobile video is that operators can deliver to places previously impractical—such as using repeaters, distributed antenna systems (DAS), or small cells in dense urban areas to cover basements or subway trains.
This setup means that even in areas out of reach of antenna towers, users can still get online, make voice calls, and receive LTE broadcast.
Deployment of LTE broadcast systems for mobile broadband further benefits operators and users by making it possible to set up temporary TV networks for events. Such networks are used for event-specific content (interviews, presentations, keynote videos, etc.), delivered over a connection with dedicated spectrum and guaranteed bandwidth from a wireless provider.
This same type of local network can and is also used by first responders or emergency services during natural disasters and other events majorly affected the public. Replacing current generation mobile radio networks with LTE broadcast would given first responders multimedia capabilities and allow them to be more effective.
Finally, let’s not forget about advertisers; LTE broadcast is an attractive marketing tool for them, too. When combined with location-based data, this technology makes it possible to target and deliver multimedia ads much more effectively.
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