Mopping up

One of the more interesting comments I read in the all-around-interesting and well-researched report on OSS in the story below is this from author Patrick Kelly: "If [communications service providers] hope to have any success in the marketplace on new services such as VoIP, IPTV and mobile video, service assurance deployments will need to occur prior to the introduction of the service not after the early adopter's stage."

I've often complained that the implementation of operations support systems (OSS) came much too late in the process and that service providers could save themselves a lot of operational headaches and maybe a few bucks if they brought the software into the implementation phase rather than post implementation.

For the most part, though, service providers knew what they were doing when implementing a new call feature or a network-based service such as a DID trunk or a high-cap circuit. And they did OK with adding or dropping an OC-3 here and there--unless you were a local or wireless service provider trying to piece together a long haul pipe from MCI. Then things inexplicably fell apart.

They had a reasonable expectation of success and quality when they turned up a service once upon a time. But that fairy tale is coming to an end. Next-generation services are different, and you know all the ways. It will become painfully obvious if service providers don't heed Kelly's call and put OSS first. With so much riding on not screwing up the proper delivery and support of converged advanced services, you would think it obvious that new methods of procedure (MOP) were called for.

Without them, someone will be MOPping the remains of the ILECs off their central office floors. I can see it now, Cable Guy standing there with one hand on the mop handle and the other pulling a Roseanne Barr.