GEORGE MALIM BUSINESS SUPPORT SYSTEMS
A simplified BSS that enables fibre providers to sell capacity and bill for it accurately, along with some customer experience management functionality, without getting into the complexities of consumer provider BSS, is therefore a reality – but only for certain types of provider. “Depending on the reach of the fibre network, this is possible,” says Glass. “Just as long as the responsibility for network termination points are the exchange or the cabinet. If the fibre provider is responsible for fibre connection right to the premises then they have to manage end customers, or at least end points. This brings in the majority of the complexities associated with consumer-provider BSS.” The idea of being able to access BSS- lite via the cloud on a SaaS basis has obvious appeal and provides a means for fibre providers to access the elements of traditional telco BSS they need without the gruelling process of selecting, configuring and customising entire systems themselves. There is also expected to be significant cost savings involved, with cloud BSS vendors such as Optiva claiming substantial total cost of ownership (TCO) reductions from CSPs that use its approach. However, fibre providers are not necessarily looking at a bargain basement approach to BSS. Unless they are operating a traditional wholesale business, their BSS requirements look set to become substantially more complex as they engage more and more in the customer experience. To do this, they can still adopt a BSS-lite approach but they will need to make careful decisions to ensure they can add capability flexibly via cloud-based SaaS solutions. “The main impact here is being able to manage quality of service, and where required, offer service level agreements,” says Morgan. “Traditional networks sometimes struggle to deliver the high speeds required for services such as cloud- based gaming, for example. With optical networks, operators could deliver specific offers that are dependent on high-speed networks. Gaming is one example, 4K TV and virtual reality could be others. This can let operators open up new partnerships, with say gaming companies, and deliver new revenue streams from these services.” Masimalany agrees that it’s all about the customer experience. “It’s fairly expensive to build a fibre network, it’s a big percentage of your capex, so how you package the product is important,” he says. “This is a landgrab business and our customers treat fibre as a catalyst for selling new services – you can’t look at this as just traditional BSS.”
The BSS requirements for optical networks will not be dissimilar to 5G and mobile digital services. The key element here is the network speed and the ability to deliver new services that are enabled by this high speed,” he adds. “This impacts not only how BSS systems are designed and delivered, but also how they’re managed and operated. The drivers are increased agility, faster development times, enabling a faster time- to-market, and cost reduction.
self-care – including Salesforce integration, customer access to service level agreement (SLA) monitoring, and fraud protection. These capabilities don’t necessarily require a heavyweight traditional BSS. “Alternative providers should look to the cloud for affordable BSS,” comments McElligott. “Without their own BSS, which they should be able to acquire from the cloud buying only those capabilities they need in a SaaS model,
services that traditional networks, operators are looking for the ability to be able to develop, configure and launch more services in a shorter timescale,” he says. “This webscale approach to product launches will become increasingly important as
operators move into new markets with new offerings that are enabled by high-speed optical networks.”
MARTIN MORGAN VP MARKETING, OPENET
alternative providers will be at the mercy of whomever they partner with for the functionality.”
“The BSS requirements for optical networks will not be dissimilar to 5G and mobile digital services. The key element here is the network speed and the ability to deliver new services that are enabled by this high speed,” he adds. “This impacts not only how BSS systems are designed and delivered, but also how they’re managed and operated. The drivers are increased agility, faster development times, enabling a faster time- to-market, and cost reduction.” The BSS needs of traditional telecoms are very different to those of the digital era. “The billing cycle is only valid for traditional services and we have developed products to support alternative means of monetisation,” says Masimalany. “Customers want to know how you charge for the service and how you will bill for it and how they will pay for it of course but the billing is for the experience now.” Nevertheless, there are fundamental attributes that fibre providers will need from their BSS. Tim McElligott, the senior analyst at TM Forum, lists these as: automated real- time least cost routing, automated inter- carrier compensation, self-ordering and
TIM MCELLIGOTT SENIOR ANALYST, TM FORUM
Although it’s possible, McElligott sees fibre providers facing limitations if they piggyback on consumer CSPs’ BSS while effectively white-labelling their infrastructure to consumer providers. “They can piggyback, but they may not have the self-care capabilities, nor the SLA management capabilities they need,” he says. “They should look to new cloud, OSS/BSS providers.” There are several providers that offer a low barrier to entry and supply cloud-based BSS on a SaaS model. For fibre providers this could be a good option to avoid the costs and inflexibility associated with traditional on-premise BSS. “As an example, but not an endorsement, CSG’s Ascendon Communications is a cloud-based BSS offering available for wholesale providers that would fit the needs of alternative fibre providers,” says Mc Elligott. “Others include Optiva, and Vlocity. NEXERA, the recently established wholesale access fibre network operator in Poland, just deployed Enxoo’s cloud OSS/BSS.”
www.opticalconnectionsnews.com
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ISSUE 20 | Q1 2020
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