Join us Feb. 25 for a look at emerging trends and technologies for more efficient, effective activation of customer accounts and services.

You’ll learn how location intelligence, working in combination with customer intelligence, helps carriers identify such obvious telecom-centric issues as local number portability and serviceability, while also being used to perform the necessary address standardization, name checks and credit checks, or determine whether customers have any outstanding accounts or past balances… including:

• Global address standardization
• Customer identity and credit verification
• Service availability and status across product OSS’s
• Tax jurisdiction assignment for service charges
• Appropriate telephone numbers and number portability
• Ethnicity awareness for more successful cross/up-sell

Learn ways to make the customer activation process smooth sailing. Discover top trends for lower cost and risk—and better customer service—

Sponsored By:

As service providers move from theory to reality in building their next-generation IP networks, best practices and preferred architectures are beginning to emerge. In this Webinar, discover the latest approaches to building IMS- and NGN-driven networks:

• What’s the right technical approach, both near-term and over the long-run, for deploying next-generation networks?
• How do service providers minimize deployment costs while maximizing their return on investment by delivering new, revenue-generating IP services (including rolling out new, potentially lucrative IMS-based LTE wireless networks)?
• What is the best approach to vendor selection? Should networks be single- or multi-vendor and how best to manage this complex new environment?
• What are the latest lessons learned in IMS/NGN deployment in the lab, in test beds and in real-world service provider deployments, including how to guarantee QOS (quality of service) and QOE (quality of experience); ensure security and protection from attacks; manage network performance and scaling concerns; and more.

Join TelephonyOnline Executive Editor Rich Karpinski to learn how next-generation IP networks are being built today.

Sponsored By:

Traditional telecom operators may have scooped up the prime broadband wireless licenses across the country, but there are still plenty of opportunities for wireless ISPs and competitive operators to jump in the 4G game—without investing in costly 4G spectrum. The unlicensed 5 GHz bands used for WiFi and the recently opened 3.65 GHz bands are both ripe for exploitation and they’re open to anyone with a broadband plan.

In this Webinar, leading WiMAX equipment vendor Alvarion will provide a detailed overview of how to deploy a WiMAX IEEE 802.16e network over the unlicensed bands. Ashish Sharma of Alvarion will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the 5 GHz and 3.65 GHz bands and how to identify the best possible spectrum for use in any particular market. In this Webinar, participants will learn about pre-planning considerations and the nuts and bolts of an actual deployment, from radio frequency planning and optimal base station installation to managing quality of service and the end-user experience.

Alvarion will also provide insight into how other operators have deployed WiMAX in unlicensed bands around the world and will present a specific case study.

Sponsored By:

With the growing demand for High Definition-Voice to provide a more ‘life-like’ communications experience – and the HD-Voice market soon expected to grow to more than $3 billion a year-- a great user experience and crystal-clear HD-Voice quality is crucial for success. HD-Voice offers greater intelligibility, comfort and improved end-user experience without the audio fatigue that conference and telephone calls suffer today.

However, a number of technical issues must be overcome in order to achieve a truly consistent HD-Voice sound:

• What is actually required for HD-Voice?
• How do you deal with inherent issues of IP networks?
• What's the difference between wideband and super wideband?
• How do you choose a codec?
• Plus, a case study in HD-Voice deployment from CommuniGate

Join us and Vice President of Business Development, Larry Golob, Global IP Solutions, to discuss issues

HD-Voice issues relevant to enterprises, equipment manufacturers, application developers and service providers.

Sponsored By:

Rural service providers face enormous challenges as they seek to add new services, cope with access line loss, deliver broadband in high-cost areas and ward off competition from cable and Internet players. Many are also very much involved in trying to preserve the economic health of the towns and regions they serve. But rural service providers also have shown great resiliency and an ability to innovate in a nimble fashion that can serve this well. This Webcast will explore the immediate and future challenges for rural telcos and outline strategies for addressing those challenges.

Sponsored By:

Not every operator can be Verizon Wireless. While VZW may have the spectrum, the resources and the competitive inclination to launch a commercial long-term evolution network in 2010, most other operators are missing an item or two off that list. Many of those same operators, however, know that LTE is in their future roadmap, and while they won’t be breaking ground on their first 4G cell site for several years, there are several steps they can take to prepare for a future deployment short of deploying radio access gear. Many of those steps have the added advantage of benefiting the operator’s 2G and 3G operations.

In this webinar, mobile consultancy Aircom will discuss how operators can prepare for the eventual leap to LTE, regardless of what their network and frequency resources are today. Aircom’s Consulting Practice Director Fabricio Martinez will detail how other global operators are making such preparations and how North American operators can do the same. Discussion topics will include:

• Access: The cost of radio access network aside, operators will need to identify future LTE spectrum, either by purchasing new frequencies or re-farming spectrum that is currently in use for 2G and 3G.
• Backhaul: LTE will place enormous transport demands on the network, but those pressures are already emerging today over 3G networks. Is fiber to the cell site necessary now or are there fiber alternatives?
• Core: LTE is all IP, while operators current networks are decidedly not. The presentation will discuss whether operators should prepare to migrate their voice traffic onto a future LTE core—and what those options are--or separate their voice and data entirely.
• Alternate Scenarios: Not every operator is migrating from 3G to 4G. Some carriers have may choose to leapfrog 3G entirely, while others may decide that a 4G data network is unnecessary in their future plans. The webinar will explore all of these possibilities and determine what makes sense for which operator.

Sponsored By:

With energy usage accounting for up to 50 percent of an operator’s operating expenses, energy costs on the rise, and IP technology delivering new bandwidth-intensive services to an ever growing number of subscribers, service providers need greater insight into where they can find efficiency in the network without impacting service delivery. One way to reduce costs is to minimize power consumption through functional consolidation at the IP edge.

Learn about strategies for consolidating functions at the edge and innovative new energy efficiency metrics that will help you better measure and realize significant power savings by as much as 70% . Presented by Glen Hunt, Principal Analyst, Carrier Infrastructure, Current Analysis and Jeff Baher, Sr. Director, Product Marketing, Ericsson.

Sponsored By:

With the economy recovering, broadband stimulus funds are ready to flow and demand for innovative broadband solutions are growing; service providers have the opportunity to score key customer deals in late 2009 and beyond – if they make the right deployment decisions.

This Webcast, sponsored by Motorola and presented in part by Vince Vittore and Ray Savich, takes a close look at the potential for using fixed wireless broadband technologies to help jumpstart such opportunities. Supporting in-demand solutions like rural broadband, municipal networks, networked security, traffic enforcement video backhaul and more, fixed wireless broadband can be deployed quickly and affordably delivering solid ROI without requiring massive network investment.

Learn how to take advantage of this technology platform to land big customer wins in the coming year.

Sponsored By:

As core content delivery networking (CDN) functions face commoditization, CDN providers must adapt their services by layering on a mix of new value-adds - things like broader content management, live event management and mobile video solutions. Meanwhile, customer demands are shifting, giving CDNs greater opportunity to segment the market, and carriers are slowly seeping in to the already crowded market, making differentiation even more important. How can CDN providers - carriers, standalones and combinations of the two - position themselves to succeed as the CDN sector continues to evolve? Dan Rayburn, Principal Analyst with Frost & Sullivan, will map out the best strategies for serving this dynamic market.

Sponsored By:

With the $7.2 billion government dollars available for broadband stimulus, it’s all about becoming more competitive while expanding into new service areas.

But which geographic areas can provide the greatest returns?

Join us for a discussion of the mapping, data and reporting challenges and capabilities needed for communications providers to sustain and optimize their broadband technology initiatives. Learn how to apply these crucial skills to your broadband stimulus efforts.

Key topics include:

• Collecting, analyzing and understanding detailed data for the 8.2 million blocks in the US in order to
• Size markets and potential service areas
• Identify and prioritizing those areas
• Make smart investments
• Establishing a streamlined process for continual data updates
• Planning and executing network buildouts

Be sure you’re making the most of the billion dollar broadband stimulus opportunity—from the application process through full implementation.

Sponsored By:

Every U.S. telecom service provider is exploring ways to “go green” and save some money in the process, but none has been more aggressive than Verizon, which last year led the industry in requiring its vendors to cut energy usage of their products by 20%. Chuck Graff, Verizon's director of corporate and network technology, heads that effort and leads this Telephonyonline.com Webcast. Graff will outline Verizon’s plans for cutting its energy usage and also share his insights on how the telecom industry needs to be cooperating in the effort to reduce carbon emissions across the board.

Through Graff’s presentation and an introduction by Telephony Executive Editor Rich Karpinski, Webcast attendees can explore

• How telecom service providers should be measuring their energy usage
• Reducing power consumption both in the CO and at the customer premises
• The role that fleet management plays in cutting energy usage
• The potential for U.S. businesses to face mandatory energy cuts, if the Obama Administration decides to join the Kyoto Protocol
• The push for international standards on telecom energy reduction
• How the U.S. telecom industry stacks up against European and Asian service providers

Sponsored By:

Online billing can save money, speed payment, improve the efficiency of your revenue center and reduce customer churn. And customers appreciate greater control over their billing relationship.

Learn the best practices for online customer billing and service – how to implement a paperless bill, drive traffic to your web site, improve customer service and ready your call center for this new world.

Sponsored By:

With the rules for distribution of federal broadband stimulus money set, and the first round of funding almost at hand, a trio of experts offers valuable advice on both getting stimulus money and putting it to the best use.

Sponsored By:

Mobile operators don’t like to admit they have a data problem, but the recent surges in mobile broadband and 3G data plan have obviously created congestion problems for operators. IP traffic on their networks have spiked, as have the associated costs of delivering it. Operators in the US have addressed that problem by restricting the amount of data a customer can consume. They’ve instituted caps or quotas set at specific numbers of [m]egabytes or gigabytes and then charge customers sometimes punitive for going over those limits. This bucket-of-megabytes approach mirrors the minute and message plans operators use to sell voice and SMS today, but customers don’t consume data the same way they consume voice or text messaging. They’re accustomed to unlimited broadband service at home and in the office. How do operators reconcile those differences?

Mobile operator consultant Aircom believes that data caps aren’t always the best way to for operators to maximize usage of their 3G networks while preventing abuse. In this Webcast, Aircom director of solutions and innovation Ricky Watts discusses some of those alternatives, which range from dynamic tariffing to policy control, strategic network enhancements and even the possibility of network sharing. In addition to outlining alternatives, Watts will delve deeply into specific case studies—some for the first time—of foreign and domestic operators it is working with to develop a comprehensive data strategy. Some examples:

• A case study of a US operator already feeling network strain from data usage, but working with Aircom to relieve that congestion through a combination of coverage improvements and implementation of quality of service
• A case study of a European operator that has overcome data network costs by sharing 3G infrastructure
• A case study of an African operator that uses dynamic tariffing to charge customers lower rates when its network is uncongested

Sponsored By:

Everyone’s talking about the impending paradigm shift in telecom and IT from traditional hosted apps and managed services to a new breed of cloud-based offerings: Software-, Computing- and Platform-as-a-Service. But what are the real-world business models that will make these concepts lucrative for service providers?

What technological and operational transformations are required for service providers of various types to compete in these new markets, and how can they leverage their unique advantages? How will these new services be sold, delivered and billed? This Webcast will clarify the business models behind the cloud.

Sponsored By:

When it comes to broadband billing, the staple all-you-can-eat approach is going away. But, what will replace it in the broadband of the future? A key driver of more flexible consumer broadband services will be more flexible and powerful service provider billing, charging and pricing applications. In this Inside Telecom Live Webcast, Telephony looks at the tactics and back-office platforms to give service providers more control over how they deliver, control and price broadband services.

Among the topics to discuss will be:

• The problems with the one-size-fits-all approach to billing and charging for carrier broadband delivery.
• Trends in broadband billing and charging today – Where is the industry at? Where is it headed, and what will it take to get there?
• The new services a flexible broadband billing system can enable, as well as what services consumers will pay a premium for.
• Maneuvering network management, policy control, front-end business rule creation and back-end billing outputs.
• Operator case studies and examples from outside of telecom. While many savvy operators are beginning to think about flexible policy-driven pricing schemes, very few have implemented any in practice. Which operators are doing it well, and what can others learn from them?
• The best network architectures and the role of deep packet inspection and network management.
• The customer’s viewpoint – how to identify high-value customers and get all consumers more active in choosing and understanding how they consume and are charged for bandwidth.
• Key concepts and takeaways in this new broadband billing and charging paradigm.

Sponsored By:

The real promise of IPTV is the ability to leverage the IP pipe to target consumers down to the individual household and, eventually, even the individual TV watcher. How can IPTV service providers capitalize on this opportunity for personalization? Importantly, how can they ensure a consumer’s right to privacy in the process? What additional opportunities and challenges does this present?

Sponsored By:

The Obama Administration’s economic stimulus plan includes $7.2 billion in funds for building broadband networks in unserved and underserved areas, as well as another $2 billion in Rural Utility Service funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This new funding has created both excitement and confusion among service providers with rural high-cost territories. In this Telephony Webinar, Thomas Cohen, partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Kelley Drye, and a specialist in telecommunications law, will unravel some of the mystery of broadband stimulus funding. He will explain, based on all information available to date, what kinds of projects are likely to be funded, as well as the process involved in obtaining funding. Service providers looking for expert advice on how they can capitalize on the Broadband Stimulus package to better serve their constituents will want to hear this Telephony Webinar, sponsored by Telco Systems.

Sponsored By:

As service providers work to grow their share of the fast-growing carrier Ethernet services market, they must optimize their networks end-to-end for Ethernet service delivery. Carriers are forced to determine not only how to scale their networks to meet the demand for those services but also how best to balance layer 2 and layer 3 technologies for their particular business model. This Webcast will explore how carriers can utilize the latest advances in carrier Ethernet technology to manage end-to-end services most effectively, staying ahead of market demand while maximizing cost efficiency.

Topics to be addressed:

• Strategies for metro, edge and access Ethernet deployment
• Advances in Ethernet transport technologies
• Managing a mix of layer 2 and layer 3-based services end-to-end
• Maximizing efficiency in migrating legacy service

Sponsored By: