TM Forum: From IT big bang to global opportunity-hunting

More than anything, telecom service providers have capabilities – including control of the network, information about subscribers, and the ability to charge for services – that they need to leverage much more aggressively to not only cement their place in the mobile value chain, and, more importantly, get mobile ARPU moving upward again, said Rafi Kretchmer, director of product marketing-revenue management for Amdocs.

Amdocs revealed at the show some benchmarks for its real-time charging systems running on IBM blade servers, showing that the combination improved real-time event processing in the network by 300% to 400% -- coupled with significant cost savings from cheaper server and storage costs, said John Polly, IBM’s vice president, global sales for the telecommunications industry.

Combining software smarts and cheaper yet powerful hardware is the path to building the smarter pipes mobile operators long for – as well as the path away from dead-end flat rate and other unsustainable mobile service models.

“Flat-rate pricing models simply aren’t sustainable,” Amdocs’ Kretchmer said. “In order to mitigate that, there’s a crucial need for differentiated pricing. Services providers today are in a position to do that – they hold unique network assets.”

While much of the focus at this week’s show was on mobile, service providers were encouraged to think in similar fashion about their video delivery networks. Again, focusing simply on the triple play while ignoring the ability of an intelligent IP network to deliver a much more personalized, streamlined experience is an opportunity carriers ignore at their own risk.

“I believe if this industry engages in becoming a smart pipe, offering entertainment and social media services to customers in a valuable, useful and seamless way, this is an extraordinary value. You can connect with customers in ways media companies don’t,” said Lucy Hood, executive director of the head of the Institute of Communications Management Technology, and former president of Fox Mobile Entertainment. “Don’t underplay what you are doing,” she told her service provider audience, adding, “If you invest in these capabilities, you have a lot of power.”