Provisioning new customers onto a mobile voice network was a relatively simple process; provisioning a customer for a specific data service which itself must be provisioned on the network and at other points on the value chain is far more complicated. Alun Lewis explains the new requirements and what they mean for operators looking to build a data business.

For nearly a decade now, the mobile industry’s equivalent of spin doctors have been talking up visions of a future filled with advanced services of many different kinds. From video streaming to the delivery of location-based information, the concept of a broad portfolio capable of attracting revenue streams from subscribers, and from organisations seeking to reach the mobile consumer with entertainment or lifestyle content, has been an attractive one.

As ever, the actual reality has turned out to be a little murkier than those initially optimistic dreams. Adapting technologies, architectures and business models that grew up during the relatively stable era of voice services to fit a new content-oriented universe has proved rather more problematic than first thought. While the telecommunications industry is generally very efficient at designing its own future, the move towards offering more advanced services has brought it into contact with a host of industries such as TV and record companies. Many of these in turn are interested in contributing content and services of their own to the mobile mix to the mobile service provider’s customers.

However, while the flow of new service possibilities has be relatively free, the process of turning these into the foundations of a viable business, has stumbled its way forward. The reason — parallel changes need to be made to all the back office systems involved in the actual provision of services. As content and advanced services cause an almost exponential increase in the complexity of the management issues and associated data that must be gathered and controlled, how can we ensure that these systems are up to the job?

Ronnie Beggs, wireless product manager at Cramer Systems, scales the problem, “With margins under pressure, operators are following the call of mobile content services to boost usage and revenue. But, as they move into 3G, they will enter a new realm of ‘perishable’ services that is infinitely more complex than anything before. The problem: provisioning content, IT infrastructure and delivery capabilities all at the same time and all within a very narrow window.

“Although operators already have experience of bringing up offerings for time-sensitive events such as the World Cup and the Olympics, the task of turning on a continuous flow of perishable mobile content services represents a major step up. Instead of having months to plan an offering, they will face a steady stream of content changes for new products. If they miss the deadlines, the products are useless !

“To be successful with mobile content services, operators need to squarely address the problem of simultaneously provisioning content, infrastructure and service capability. The first steps to this are to give a great deal of thought to how they build service delivery platforms so that there’s little change in the underlying transport network, and to design service catalogues around modular components that can be reused.

These views are echoed by Gareth Senior, cto at Axiom Systems, “There are a number of core issues around mobile provisioning: how to provision service assurance and the have ability to test the network; how to provision third parties into the market-place and de-provision those who aren’t performing — there are only a certain number of content options a phone can take and so these need to be the best ones; how to allow third parties to provision and de-provision their customers directly; and finally how to support corporate services such as VPNs, where new services need to be deployed and cancelled as frequently as employees start or finish their employment.
The challenge for mobile operators and provisioning in particular is that a customer who wants a value-added service such as gaming, gambling or even porn will need to register first with the service provider and the third party content provider — and for all parties to deliver, at the same time and in what is short period of time. This whole process needs to be connected and this is what we term ‘dynamic service provisioning’. Fixed service providers already have a problem delivering simple services like DSL to their customers on time — only a multi-functional OSS product can solve the content delivery problem for them.”

The demands being made on the back office environment by the leaps in functionality of new mobile devices and advanced services, extends right across the value chain from the end customer to the billing systems, as Jennifer Kyriakakis, Portal Software’s senior manager explains, “Many mobile service providers — in an effort to reduce OPEX — are swapping out network- and service-specific OSS components for convergent back office applications. Ironically, as many service providers are under pressure to consoli-date fragmented back office appli-cations, the breadth of what any one pro-visioning system needs to handle is expanding.

“With the growth of SMS, MMS, GPRS and other content enabling services, provisioning systems not only have to support multiple in-house components — but must also interface with third party content servers. And, with the growing popularity of ‘self-service’, provisioning systems must handle requests for content and services from multiple sources — not just from their own customer service representatives, but also from self-service websites and third party content sites. More than ever, end users are demanding instant gratification — the value of mobile devices has always been built on the convenience of delivery.

“The result is a set of often conflicting objectives within the OSS environment. Service providers are struggling to enable a multitude of new content services while simultaneously moving towards a more convergent OSS/BSS model. Only service providers that are able to streamline their back office applications onto a simplified architecture that is flexible enough — and agile enough — to handle the processing of service requests from multiple sources will be able to compete effectively.”

While the debate around the optimum architectures for the OSS of the future continues within the TeleManagement Forum, some vendors see a centralised inventory as the most sensible solution for dealing with this complexity. Simon Gleave, head of EMEA marketing at Metasolv provides the detailed view, “It’s becoming increasingly important that we have all the important data residing in one central repository to try and get as clear a picture as possible of what’s happening and the implications of any changes. Provisioning these advanced content services is not a ‘clean’ process and you need to be able to interrogate multiple systems. There’s also a requirement to manage SLAs back to the content originator as well as provide them in some circumstances to the end user and the ability to provide an audit trail in this context can be very useful.”

One of the main problems in this whole area is that what was once a compara-tively straightforward provisioning process with well understood standards is now starting to encompass other telecoms disciplines, particularly around service creation and associated techno-logies such as Intelligent Networks, MMS and XML, as well as deal with far more powerful handset devices. “Provisioning has to be seen in the retail context of successfully closing a sale,” comments Wim Harthoorn, wireless solutions architect at Micromuse. “That means taking a truly end-to-end perspective on all the activities that have to happen and seeing how service quality can be guaranteed across the whole of the value chain.”

But if mobile operators are to stay in control, this is something that they’re going to have to address seriously as John Salter, general manager at Granite Systems explains, “The old battle of the ‘walled gardens’ is still underway to a certain extent. If mobile service providers are to make the step to becoming more than just wireless connectivity providers for these new services, then they’re going to have to invest more in taking control of the value chain. That means extending the system reach out towards the end user themselves in some circumstances, or out to retail staff in electronics stores, and for that to happen the provisioning interfaces need to be as easy to use as possible. The trouble is not so much a lack of standards but a profusion of them and, while the OMA has been invaluable as a consolidator, the increasing diversity of handset devices — as just one example — means that complexity keeps on growing.

These issues are coming to fore now as the industry begins to concentrate on rolling out multimedia messaging, where it’s expected most of the traffic will come from commercial content providers rather than peer-to-peer exchanges. According to Richard McConnell, COO at MMS gateway specialist Mobile Cohesion, “Camera phones will enable the creation of some personalised picture messaging content, but mobile operators will look to ‘best in class’ media brands to inject compelling mass-market, multimedia content into the messaging stream and so generate volume traffic through superdistribution — the process by which content is passed from one to many subscribers.

“There are however two fundamental gaps in today’s technology chain. The first involves service creation as multimedia messaging service centres only offer telecoms-based APIs for submission of content which must also be created in a mobile-centric format. While mainstream media companies can create internet-based web content, for most the technical barriers to MMS service creation are too great to overcome. The second issue is scale. In order for the mobile operator to fulfil the promise of MMS — ie more revenues and profits than with text messaging alone — they must offer a wide range of ever-changing content and services with billing models which provide good incentives for the content providers. However, the integration of new services into the mobile network has until recently been a labour intensive and bespoke task.”

If the mobile industry is to make its next steps from what was effectively a one product shop to the virtual information department store, then all those familiar silos — both technological and cultural — are going to have to be broken down. As provisioning now involves far more than just voice — and extends out beyond the traditional boundaries of the service provider — a new mindset, as well as new tools, is vitally important.

Money to invest in mobile technology is scarce and every resource now needs to be squeezed to deliver its greatest potential.  No where is this more obvious than in the data strategies being pursued by many of Europe’s leading operators as they look to GPRS to deliver much more than originally planned. Catherine Haslam reports on the OSS developments that are helping them achieve this.

GPRS is, as we are all aware, a best effort technology. In its basic form, all that anyone can say is that GPRS usually delivers a throughput somewhere around 12–15kbit/s (including overheads) per timeslot. However, those speeds can and will vary dramatically depending on the amount of traffic in each cell. This is where the problems lie because while 30-40kbit/s is good enough for a host of applications, the vast majority require some level of reliability. It is not so much a case of taking GPRS to its maximum theoretical potential but rather delivering an acceptable and consistent transport platform on which applications and business cases can be built.

This is the position we are in now. While not exactly mature, GPRS networks across Europe have reached a certain level of reliability and, as traffic levels are reasonably low, there is little trouble with the quality of service. However, as Russell Crawford, product manager at Mycom readily accepts, if services such as MMS etc really take off then GPRS will offer much more variable throughput rates.

Operators face a choice. They can either deploy solutions capable of monitoring and managing GPRS traffic, or attempt to defer the quality issue by rolling out the greater bandwidth and inherent Quality of Service (QoS) management of UMTS as fast as they can.
In simple terms this is a choice that mirrors that experienced in the fixed world — manage traffic more effectively or throw bandwidth at the situation. The difference is that bandwidth is always going to be a limiting factor for wireless communications in comparison to fixed, even with 3G. The excessive bandwidth associated with fibre is just not applicable in the wireless world and therefore getting the most out of what we have remains the mobile mantra. Indeed, never has this been more true than it is today, as faced with unfavourable market conditions Europe’s mobile operators are increasingly looking at getting everything they can out of GPRS and not just viewing it as a stepping stone to 3G.

It was perhaps no surprise therefore, that GPRS traffic management was a major theme of 3GSM — operators were demanding solutions. And, on the other side of the equation, businesses are recognising the possible benefits. Indeed, the momentum behind mobilising corporate data is such that some believe that failing to deploy it will not just mean that they miss a growth opportunity but will lose business because of it. However, enterprises are used to working with SLAs and therein receiving a certain level of predictability from their data connectivity.

Dynamic shaping

sraeli company CellGlide has taken this as the starting point for its solution which dynamically shapes bandwidth to the requirements of specific traffic loads. “Traffic shaping is a well-known phenomenon in wireline and is based on the ability to deal with bursty traffic, most specifically in IP networks,” says Liron Langer, ceo of CellGlide. He further explained, however, that the fixed experience could not simply be transplanted into the mobile arena, “Most people either concentrate on the optimisation of applications or of the radio transmission but you really need to do both.”

Laure Reiller, senior product manager at WatchMark explains further, “Performance management has been about monitoring and measuring the performance of network elements in order to monitor the performance of the voice services. With data, it’s a different game. It’s not just a pipe service anymore, now there are lots of ingredients — the RAN and the core networks, applications, partnerships with content providers etc — which all go to make up compelling services.

Measure to manage

To manage data, you need to be able to monitor it, identify what sort of traffic is being transmitted across the network and see what network resources are allocated to it — ie you need to monitor the existing and new network elements and those other, now vital application and content layers.

A view of the network can be derived with many of the same tools as are in place today. Performance counters and mobile RF measurements from drive tests etc, together with the configuration parameters and network elements traces, all provide vital information on the way the mobile network is performing. However, GPRS throws in the added complication of data fighting with voice traffic for timeslots. Therefore, at peak times, capacity could quickly become an issue. Ironically, it will be those mobile operators that are successful with their data strategies that are likely to encounter problems first. That is unless they have significant amounts of excess capacity currently lying dormant and that is unlikely.

In many of Europe’s larger cities, capacity is already causing operators problems. Add to this the change in attitude towards 3G that has left many incumbent mobile operators looking to maximise their investment in GPRS rather than rush to deploy UMTS which actually has QoS provision inherent in the Release 4 standard, and the need for more sophisticated OSS solutions to manage data is pressing.

End-to-end view

In terms of what needs to be done, the key is providing an end to end view of what is happening to the service a customer receives and being able to manage the service so that it is delivered effectively as often as is possible. There is little value in knowing that a service is failing if it is impossible or long-winded to identify where the problem is or, conversely, what impact the failure of specific network elements has on services. However, as David Heaps, senior vice president at ADC Metrica states, “Today, most operators don’t have an end-to-end view of the service quality.”

To get that end-to-end view requires a system which looks beyond the basic network structure, or perhaps more accurately, builds on the information derived from the mobile network. At a service level, Key Quality Indicators (KQI), probe systems and SNMP counters add meat to the bones, while a customer view can be gleaned from the call detail records (CDRs), core network records and subscriber traces. Combine all of these with the traditional information sources already mentioned, and you begin to establish a level of understanding about what service level is being delivered.

Exponential rise
As Mycom International’s Crawford explains this is no simple task, “There are a huge number more interfaces to addressed and this has to be done in a multi-technology and multi-vendor environment.” However, not only does all this need to be monitored, it also needs to be managed and due to the massive increase in data which is needed to give an accurate view of the network and the equally large and complicated options for management there is a need to automate and simplify reporting and some actions.

To this end, WatchMark has created an MMS addition to its Prospect product. The rationale behind this is that, “Most 2G operators have performance management systems they are happy with but MMS gives a compelling reason to change,” according to Reiller. What the product gives is the ability to create reports against a set of pre-defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which can either be created by WatchMark or by the operator very quickly to see just how well specific services are working. However, while MMS provides a reason to change in WatchMark’s view, this is not about throwing away existing systems but building on them.

Evolution not revolution

Certainly, the ability to work with the existing systems and drive all information through a central system which delivers the information necessary in an evolving environment is at the heart of Mycom’s solution, NIMS-PrOptima. “Firstly, we have architected the system specifically for 2.5 and 3G,” says Crawford. But, he explains, “Operators want a single solution that has to be flexible enough to fit with what they have and take the expertise that is there.”

The result is a modular solution that builds in a layer of abstraction at the interfaces. This enables NIMS-PrOptima to work with all the layers required as well as any existing systems. The ace in the Mycom hand, however, is that the management side has a level of automation. NIMS-PrOptima learns from the actions taken in response to certain issues and therefore prompts responses and holds much of the expertise in the system, rather than in the minds of a few specialists.

As with every other area of the mobile operator’s infrastructure at the moment, solutions which cannot work with, or build on, what is already installed, will be rejected out of hand. Backward compatible, future-proof technologies which are both scalable and reliable are the order of the day. Fail to meet these basic requirements and there will be no future for the solution. However, at the same time, many operators recognise that this is one area in which doing nothing will not only fail to improve their service delivery capability but will actively lead to its deterioration.

Operators bold enough to throw away their preconceptions could find that outsourcing parts of their network can be a solution to their cost problems. Jurgen Wittkopp of PA Consulting Group explains.

How can mobile operators respond to the ever-increasing pressure to cut costs without compromising the future viability of their business? Regulators, competitors and growing technical complexity are all contributing to the margin squeeze that we currently see in the industry. In a tight spot, selling off non-core assets or freezing investments looks like a handy ‘quick fix’, and it is one that some operators have gratefully seized. Unfortunately, this often does not go far enough.

One of the avenues to consider, we believe, is to outsource parts of the network to partners that can do things more efficiently. This step may seem to go against everything that mobile operators think they stand for, but it would be a mistake to dismiss it out of hand. Our projections, grounded on a case study for an “average” European mobile operator, suggest that network outsourcing could reduce costs by around 10% and debt by up to 15% — without necessarily giving away strategically important tasks or jeopardising the responsiveness of the business.

Such a bold step could rid operators of several chronic inefficiencies and significant cost. For example, one has to ask whether it is appropriate that large parts of a network operation should be run by highly skilled engineers who need to be trained in new software or equipment every six months?  Or does the relatively miniscule traffic that passes through GPRS and mobile hosting equipment justify throwing huge resources at them when players in the fixed internet world often have derived very cost-efficient processes to utilise infrastructure optimally? Outsourcing could lift burdens like these from the operators’ shoulders.

Along with these industry-specific benefits, operators could gain the advantages associated with all well-designed outsourcing deals, together with some larger strategic wins that have been demonstrated by the new style of outsourcing partnership deals now being signed within the IT industry.  The benefits are summarised in figure 1.

Missed opportunity

If outsourcing of parts of the network has such potential, why has it not happened to any significant extent? Network operators’ cautious approach to explore the option stems from the belief that they should, literally, operate networks.  Yet there is little logic to this view. Most operators identify their main assets as brand and the ability to build customer relationships, with ‘the network’ increasingly being seen as a commodity; in some cases, operators are already banding together to operate shared 3G networks. Even if ‘the network’ is viewed as a core activity, the operators already outsource other core activities such as customer care and billing. Nonetheless, for now the network remains the industry’s sacred cow, with as much resistance to outsourcing it as there was to outsourcing mainframe computing ten years ago.

And that, perhaps, explains why the industry lags behind the IT community when it comes to reaping the benefits of implementing a proper sourcing strategy that includes outsourcing as an option. Such outsourcing as has taken place within the mobile industry is at a fairly superficial level: installation work is easy to contract out piecemeal, but not surprisingly the payback is modest. By contrast, recent outsourcing deals in IT have demonstrated the power of creative partnerships between supplier and customers to deliver major cost savings and debt reductions. There are multiple ways in which these partnerships can deliver value for both parties — reductions in the number and complexity of supplier-customer interfaces, sharing of overheads, volume effects, and so on.

Evaluating all the options

Outsourcing must be worth evaluating, at least — so how should mobile operators set about the task? One of the main roadblocks we have found is that mobile operators quite often do not fully understand where their cost comes from and whether what they spend is good or bad practice. However,  this knowledge can only help companies to systematically assess the business case for an (out) sourcing deal.  Actually implementing it is complicated, given the multiple possibilities: for example, splitting off a separate com-pany, gradually handing over systems to a partner, or buying in standard services.

The best way to tackle the evaluation is to create a multidisciplinary team, equally at home with industry processes, technical issues and financial aspects. Given the lack of precedents within the mobile sector, such a team will need to include individuals with experience of setting up the more innovative outsourcing deals found in other industries, such as IT.  This same team can, if appropriate, go on to help plan and implement the outsourcing deal. However, the ultimate benchmark and decision on whether to opt for outsourcing must be the improvement of shareholder value.
While the involvement of the operator’s key staff is essential, purely internal projects are unlikely to succeed; operational staff will inevitably be biased against the idea of outsourcing, while finance specialists may lack sufficient understanding of business processes and technical detail. Ideally, therefore, the evaluation and planning tasks should invoke the help of an independent third party — independent also in the sense that it does not itself offer outsourcing services.

What about the supply side of the equation? In general, there is no shortage of would-be providers of outsourced services. Candidates include networking equipment vendors, for whom offering network outsourcing services could avoid the need to lay off staff who might otherwise be temporarily surplus to requirements. IT outsourcing specialists, too, are very interested in this potential new business area. The difficulty is likely to be in selecting the best contender with the optimal risk-reward ratio; here again suitably-experienced third parties can help. They can conduct thorough assessments and  identify suitable partnerships and later broker deals that are to the advantage of both partners.

A different approach

For mobile operators, PA recommends a four-phase approach to assessing, defining and preparing to implement sourcing options — an approach designed to guarantee that theoretical advantages get converted into real cost savings and sustainable value improvements.  The four phases are described in the box. For a typical company all four phases can be completed in a matter of months.  At the end of this period the mobile operator can, if appropriate, be ready to enter into an outsourcing agreement, equipped with an implementation plan and having selected an appropriate partner. Rapid as this timescale may sound, experience shows that it is realistically achievable.

The success of a project like this — and particularly of the crucial fourth phase — depends heavily on the inclusion in an evaluation team of personnel with prior experience of similar outsourcing deals. That is to say, companies need to have access to individuals who have set up strategic partnerships, rather than simply the more conventional contracts for the delivery of a specified service, which are associated with lower risks but much lower rewards. These individuals are the only ones who can confidently translate the theory of outsourcing into a practical outcome, ensuring that the benefits worked out on paper materialise in reality.

Given the mobile industry’s track record, this experience is most likely to have been gained in other sectors, so it is essential that the team include members with in-depth experience of mobile communica-tions, at management and technical levels, both within and outside the company for whom the project is being conducted.

From neutral to top gear

Taking a neutral view it becomes clear that everything that does not provide a sufficient differentiation or can be seen as commodity is bound to impact share-holder value negatively. Even though the reluctance to admit this is in the mobile operator camp is still high, over time they will be forced to change their thinking and follow economic rules.

Outsourcing may not be for every com-pany, but the one thing mobile operators cannot afford to do is to ignore the possibility. Those that neglect even to evaluate the potential benefits of outsourc-ing will find their investors knocking on the door demanding to know why.

People’s new ability to communicate has changed the world. Mobility and global reach are shortening distances, constantly breaking down barriers and irreversibly collapsing entire continents, nations and cities into communities of nomads spanning across the globe. Our planet has indeed evolved into a  Global Mobile Village.

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Company profile

Belgacom Carrier & Wholesale is the carrier division of the Belgacom group. It is a major global carrier, dedicated to serving the needs of fixed, mobile and Internet operators. Belgacom Carrier & Wholesale has the right credentials to be a trusted partner of mobile operators thanks to its unique financial stability, its potential for growth and its extended experience in transit business.