Converging operations

When carriers talk about fixed/mobile convergence, they usually discuss the big-ticket items: the merging of networks, routing, switching and seamless connectivity while moving from the home to the office and worlds in between. They talk about applications that can function over whatever pipe they happen to latch on to. Only a select few dwell on the inner workings of those networks--the support systems. But convergence of the operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS) is as critical as the access networks themselves.

"You can bet a big topic in the future will be the reduction of the number of OSSs performing different tasks," said John Scaldaferri, Lucent Technologies' senior product manager for the converged core solutions.

As carriers consolidate and add new access technologies, they are finding themselves to be OSS collectors, with separate software systems performing the same tasks on different networks. Take network managements systems. They don't have to be integrated for a converged network to function, Scaldaferri said, but the benefits of having the same fault management system or the same account management system spanning multiple networks are obvious.

However, OSS integration for an FMC network doesn't require a complete back office overhaul, Scaldaferri said. Much of the existing OSS architecture can be preserved. Element managers would still be tied to their routers and switches, but as OSS systems evolve into next-generation network systems, they--like their core and access counterparts--can be used to take on a greater role in the network.

OSS functions for a wireless network, for instance, could be extended to a Wi-Fi or fixed broadband network. Interfaces between individual EMSs and their overall network management systems can be consolidated, and horizontal communications between the network systems can be standardized, Scaldaferri said.

Not everything would necessarily need to be integrated. Operational functions such as provisioning that function quite well within a specific network could continue to be tied to one technology, Scaldaferri said, while accounting, billing and service management could be consolidated onto a converged OSS that supports multiple technologies.

Sometimes it's just a matter of getting existing systems to communicate better. One organization trying to accomplish this in the area of network management is the TeleManagement Forum's Co-operative Open OSS Project, or CO-OP, which was launched in October 2004 by the major equipment vendors to develop a multivendor approach to OSS. The CO-OP is currently tasked with taking 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardized interfaces used for northbound communications between network management and element management systems and applying them to east-west communications between element management and network management systems supplied by different vendors. The idea, said CO-OP program manager Kenneth Dilbeck of the TMF, is to allow separate OSS architectures to be vertically integrated by a single vendor to communicate with another vendor's own vertically integrated architecture.

While the CO-OP's work is mainly intended to ease transitions in multivendor environments, such as managing customers and conversations as they pass from one vendor's cellular network to another, that same work can eventually be applied to issues of convergence, Dilbeck said.

"Some of that is already on the horizon," Dilbeck said. "Our next phase will look at the core interface, where we'll address high-order services."

Last month, Embarq launched its fixed/mobile convergence offering, Smart Connect, in Las Vegas, Orlando and Charlottesville, Va. The service has been running in those areas since June 5 but is now generally available. Embarq's phased rollout will next target Fayetteville, N.C., Mansfield, Ohio, and Ft. Myers, Fla.

NewStep Networks is supporting that rollout and expects to name several more deployments in the next 30 to 45 days. So there is little time to waste getting the back office in place for FMC. The market is about to bust wide open--at least that's what NewStep's investors must think, since they pumped another $7 million into the company last week.

Pyramid Research has projected that the FMC market will reach $80 billion by 2009 and will account for 6% of worldwide communications spending. Some, like IDC, expect the Asia-Pacific market to lead in adoption of this technology. So far, NewStep is seeing growth in both North America and Europe. Craig Gosselin, chief marketing officer at NewStep Networks, said the enterprise market is taking the market lead in North America, driven by current capabilities with single-mode devices. Europe, Gosselin said, is more interested in dual-mode device-based solutions.

A report by Dittberner in May showed that much higher earning prospects result from differences in both fixed and mobile revenue projections, combined with a relative reduction in operating expenditures. EBITDA difference could reach $21.3 billion in 2010. This doesn't take into account revenue generated by new services.

Another report last month showed the rebound of the outsourced billing market due in part to increasing billing complexity. Citing Sprint-Nextel as an example of an operator deciding to outsource its complex billing operations to Amdocs, Dittberner projected the billing outsourcing market to grow at an 8.8% compound annual growth rate from $1.1 billion in 2005 to $1.6 billion in 2010. Sprint's and other MVNO models contributed to the growth in outsourcing and companies such as Embarq use Sprint (its ex-parent company) as the wireless portion of its fixed/mobile convergence offering.