With more and more ‘bandwidth heavy’ services scheduled to come on stream, the issue of network capacity is now a high priority for service providers. Keith Donahue looks at how the industry can meet the expected demand

The mobile content industry is quickly clearing the barriers to its own success: the first wholesale 3G and GPRS services are launching to overcome high data charges; Apple's DRM policies are being challenged in court; and companies like Nvidia are starting to drive through standards for high-quality 3D gaming. But one hurdle remains to be cleared.
While all the discussion is of the 'sexy' technologies for delivering and experiencing content, the method for actually getting this content to the users has been overlooked. At the access level, all the talk is of HSPA and WiMAX: but operators need to examine how they get content to the network edge. 
Most networks were built for voice services, with data as an afterthought. Even 3G networks typically only offer a few megabits to the base station. Yet new access technologies are offering multiple megabit downloads and real-time streaming. 

Network evolution
As the capabilities of mobile devices have evolved over the last 15 years, the network has also developed to support new features. Starting with the introduction of digital voice over GSM networks in 1990, the evolution of mobile services can almost be plotted on a chart of bandwidth requirements against time: text services added in the mid '90s; camera phones and photo messaging in 2000; cached video services in 2004; and now live streaming of mobile TV.
In the last five years, the provisioning of capacity for each new cell site has more than doubled. Where once one or two E1 circuits were the norm, now four times E1 is the minimum. And even this is based on educated guesswork about the future (most likely conservative) rather than a real knowledge of what the demands of subscribers and applications will be. Herein lies the operators' major problem. The prospects for mobile broadband content are good, but the timetable for their success remains uncertain. Most service providers come from a voice centric background and lack the required experience in planning for and delivering data over their networks. For example, some carriers are happy provisioning 4xE1 today, while others are planning up to 16xE1. There really is no consensus on the expected demand.
It's a cliché now, but nonetheless true that no one wants to repeat the failure of WAP. With expensive rights deals, and huge potential revenues, the risk of underwhelming subscribers with poor quality content services is just too great. Yet this remains a very real possibility, unless service providers begin to address the potential bandwidth deficit in their networks. Estimates suggest that video services alone could saturate the capacity of many cellular networks by 2007.
The issues that dogged WAP were many, but fundamental to the problem was the lack of bandwidth available in the last mile. Even with 2.5G, the experience was nowhere near that promised by early images of the wireless web surfer. At bit rates of barely 30Kbps, this was hardly surprising. Today, this problem has been largely overcome with 3G and High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). But rather than solving the problem, this has moved the bottleneck deeper into the network – specifically into the backhaul segment. As noted above, 3G networks – rolled out in the last few years – have typically been based on the provision of 1-2xE1 per base station. Before taking any other overheads or bandwidth use into account, this gives a theoretical maximum of 4Mbps. Just one unrestricted user with an HSDPA-enabled device could consume this bandwidth five times over.

Traffic control
Of course, this situation is merely theoretical. It will be some time before any mobile service could consume such enormous volumes of data. But the introduction of rich content to the service mix will place enormous strain on any current architecture. Streaming video is a prime example of this.
Video, like voice, uses a constant bit rate, but the amount of bandwidth required by video is exponentially higher. Any degradation in the available bandwidth will seriously impact frame rates, picture quality and hence the user experience. While 8kbps is sufficient for a good quality voice call, the 3GPP recommends that up to 32Kbps would be required for text distribution with low-quality video, where low-quality video is defined as three frames per second (fps). This rises sharply to 128kbps for audio distribution with low-quality video, and all the way to 384kbps for video streaming, where the quality is not defined.
Clearly, if video services become popular, it won't require many users connected to the same cell site, making calls, browsing the web, downloading games and watching streamed content to exhaust the available capacity. When this happens, service quality and the consumer experience will begin to degrade.
Of course this isn't just a mobile telephony issue. Managing a mix of traffic with different requirements has been a conundrum in the fixed line world for many years. The solution – at least in theory – is QoS/CoS/SLA controls that assign priorities to the most important data traffic. These are generally the packets associated with constant bit rate services such as video and voice. However, while these tools can certainly help in a situation with limited capacity, some services and users will inevitably suffer when a finite amount of bandwidth is being shared between users. The long-term solution has to be more bandwidth.

Build a better network
The problem, of course, is that no one knows precisely how much more bandwidth is required. While provisioning 16xE1 to every base station may provide long-term flexibility, it is unlikely to be economical. One unlikely source of guidance is from service providers in developing countries. Here it is the extremely rapid adoption of mobile phones that has caused a headache in network planning. In Nigeria, for example, new cell sites have been saturated within just five hours of going live because of intense demand. The solution for Nigerian carriers has been a phased approach to adding capacity, using point-to-point radio-based platforms with the scope to scale over time. This means that the right amount of bandwidth can be supplied at any one time without the additional cost of over-provisioning.
Whatever the approach, the major issue is ensuring that those marketing the new services are aware of the problem and are communicating with the network planners to ensure a solution. Adding the capital expenditure of a network upgrade into the cost of launching new services could make the difference between profitability and disaster. If not, and the problem is ignored, we could end up with another WAP.
Until this issue has been resolved, the user's experience of downloading mobile content could be so constrained that it may not be one they will repeat – however good the content.                                 

Keith Donahue is Director Business Growth Programs, Harris Microwave Communications

3GSM World Congress in Barcelona will once again contain all the elements expected of the leading event for the mobile industry

In February of 2007, the global mobile community will shift its attention to the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, the world's largest mobile industry event. The Congress combines the world's biggest exhibition for the mobile industry value chain with a cutting edge conference that features some of the most influential chief executives from mobile operators, manufacturers, content owners, application developers and others from across the globe.
Each year the event defines the agenda for the development of the mobile communications and media marketplace. In 2007, the convergence of mobile devices and mobile entertainment will be more pronounced than ever before. Music, gaming, video and social networking are now key technology and revenue drivers and the feel and theme of the congress will reflect that fact.
A number of exciting new themes and initiatives appear on the agenda for 2007. All of which have been put in place to align global business strategies in support of mobile services in the future, separating the hype from the reality in order to provide a basis for the industry's development on a global scale.
As part of the headline mobile entertainment theme, the GSMA has announced a groundbreaking joint project with the Sundance Institute, a champion of the independent film genre for the past 25 years. It's President, world famous actor and director Robert Redford, recently announced a project with the GSMA to commission five short films created by six established and new independent film makers, exclusively for mobile devices. The initiative, known as the Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project, will culminate in the world premier of the five films at the Congress in Barcelona. The Congress will also feature discussions with the six directors of the films who were selected by the Sundance Institute on the basis of their previous work, shown at the Sundance Film Festival.   
Exhibition visitors will be invited to download these five films to their mobile phones in a variety of ways, and then share these movies with others around the world. As mobile devices are becoming the 'fourth screen' for film audiences, the 3GSM World Congress in 2007 represents a unique opportunity for the industry to generate tremendous excitement around this new content genre, which the GSMA believes is a first mobile entertainment showcase of its kind to feature such a high calibre of creative talent.
An entire hall of the congress exhibition will also be dedicated to the mobile entertainment world, providing a platform for the established and rising players in the sector to showcase their products and services.
 “The first congress to be held in Barcelona earlier this year was a resounding success, with more than 50,000 visitors from across the mobile eco-system,” says Bill Gajda, Chief Marketing Officer for the GSM Association. “The congress is not only the mobile industry's biggest event, but also a bridge for the entertainment, Internet and IT sectors that are intensely focused on the mobile space today.”
 “There's no doubt that the 3GSM World Congress is a key mobile communications event and an important destination for the entertainment industry,” adds Bill Roedy, President of MTV Networks International, who will keynote at the congress. “I'm looking forward to talking with leaders from global mobile operators and vendor communities about how we can deliver the best and most exciting content to mobile phone users.”
The GSMA also announced a world-class line-up of industry leaders to speak at the five keynote sessions of the congress in 2007. The sessions will feature the highest level insights on the hottest topics today, such as mobile broadband, convergence and emerging markets that are defining and shaping the future of mobile communications. Confirmed speakers include:
From operators:
- Rene Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telecom / T-Mobile
- Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone
- Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Orascom
- Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of Orange Group
- Phuthuma Nhleko, CEO of MTN
- Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor
- Ben Verwaayen, CEO of BT
From handsets and infrastructure:
- Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO of Ericsson
- Patricia Russo, CEO of Lucent / Alcatel
- Kaoru Yano, President of NEC Corporation
- Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO Designate of Nokia Siemens Networks
- Mike Zafirovski, President and CEO of Nortel Networks
From content providers:
- Bill Roedy, President of MTV Networks International
- Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group
- Eric Nicoli, President of EMI
There are also three streams to each day of the Congress, including a newly introduced 'CEO Strategies for Growth', featuring C-level speakers and addressing the major industry topics including convergence, market structure, segmentation, emerging markets and IP service strategies.
The 'Technology Symposium' will set out to define the evolutionary path and address the major technical challenges of 2007. Finally, the 'Mobile Entertainment Summit' will highlight the views, demands and expectations of the entertainment and mobile communities.
After its highly successful introduction in 2006, the Innovation Forum will return to showcase the most innovative companies of the year as they compete for the GSMA's prestigious Mobile Innovation Award. The forum's objective is to provide valuable insights and advice on how to take big ideas from small companies to market.
The 'Business Operations Seminar' brings together the developments and challenges of BSS and OSS with strategic industry priorities, while separating hype from reality.
New additions to 3GSM this year include the CMO Forum, a unique forum bringing together Chief Marketing Officers from around the globe and across the value chain to discuss key issues associated with taking new mobile services to market effectively. There will also be a 'Growth Markets Seminar' providing in-depth analysis of the geographic markets that are driving subscriber growth and industry development.
The GSMA Annual Government Mobile Forum (GMF) will provide a unique environment where governments and industry leaders come together to discuss the future of wireless communications at the highest level.
The exhibition floor space at the Congress is almost sold out and will host more than 1,300 exhibitors from all sectors of the mobile industry, including the dedicated mobile entertainment and content zone. Over 60,000 visitors are expected to attend.               

Details: www.3gsmworldcongress.com

While its potential benefits have been well documented, a long term view is the only sensible one if a move to IMS is to realise the right outcome, says Frank Papso

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) will enable customers to share video clips or images during a voice call. It will allow simultaneous video telephony across fixed and mobile networks. IMS will deliver the ability to provide a seamless switch over from VoIP to a mobile voice call and IMS will help service providers and network operators to create more and more revenue-generating services that build customer loyalty in a cost-effective manner. All in all, this centralisation that the IMS architecture is bringing will reduce the OpEx and create network efficiency.

IMS is the big opportunity for operators over the next few years, presenting a chance to develop new service offerings and creating a real potential for differentiation. The big challenges are twofold. The first of these is understanding the real business case behind the investment. Close behind is the second: actual implementation. Most implementation issues are largely related to technology, others are centred on users' expectations – how do we charge for such a wide range of           potentially competing services while giving the consumer a comprehensible tariff? And when are users ready to use more than one application at a time? How many people do you know who use SMS and voice at the same time?
One thing is certain: IP was never designed with carrier-grade environments in mind. It was intended to deliver packages reliably, but not in real time as with traditional telephony services. The performance problems we encountered when offering Internet portals through WAP are not dissimilar to those presented by IMS. Yet all of this can be solved with the right strategies.
Of more pressing concern is the business case. In particular, how long will it take before IMS starts to pay back?

Achieving return on investment
'Some time yet' is the answer if we look at IMS from a purely technical, commodity-based viewpoint. It's when we take a customer-centric view that the answer begins to change. Offering new services to existing customers (or to attract new customers) can be made to work even though it means developing a new network in parallel with legacy networks. Indeed, this may be the only answer for operators who want to stay ahead.
Integrating different IMS modules is relatively straightforward technically. The high level of standardisation offered by 3GPS describes not only the role of each module, but also the interfaces between them. Yet for integration with existing CRM, OSS and other systems there is a further challenge that might be more difficult. Close co-operation with marketing is needed to make sure that developments are driven by product/service requirements and not by technology. Customers are used to paying for time connected, so pricing is critical if new services are to realise revenue increase. A billing model is needed for all events, whether that means charging by time, by Mb or at a flat rate. That model has to be tested all the way to the device, for both first and subsequent uses.
Of course none of this is realistic if costs are not kept under control. Any operator embarking on a piecemeal, non-reproducible programme will find costs spiralling. The objective has to be a replicable solution with fully aligned local and global management. That means establishing a consistent architecture that balances bespoke elements with commercial off-the-shelf products. The ideal outcome is a single customer experience across different geographies, which is one of the promises of IMS.
True end-to-end integration is a very complex task. A dedicated team needs to focus early on end-to-end and stress tests to assure performance. The control layer of IMS is designed to work as a layer that is independent of the application's network. Except that different handsets can be identified by IMSI, by IP or by Bluetooth IP. One handset can be seen as two different devices if things go wrong. IPv6 may solve all of this in time, but integrating all the way out to the device means relying on specific clients for handsets. Depending on the operator's strategy, there is not necessarily close control over all of these and so it can be a challenge to guarantee that a specific application client has been correctly installed. If handsets are preconfigured and updated by a brand then the control issue is resolved but other people on your network may not be able to use the same functionality.
A clear, stable architecture under the authority of a multi country Program Management Office is the key to managing overlap between products and bespoke components. A Service Oriented Architecture, implemented centrally, simplifies the lifecycle of both bespoke and third party elements. It improves time to market, reduces the total cost of ownership and gives the flexibility and scalability needed to cope with high transaction volumes.
The imminent launch of Skype by 3 shows where the market is already headed. It also shows that mobile broadband suppliers are opening the doors to IP applications, where IMS will offer an even broader range of services. Operators everywhere are going to have to get IMS right and they may have less time than they think.
Whether we believe in IMS or not, it is going to happen. Currently only a few operators have launched any services, most are trialling IMS, or have started to look at the potential benefits. Of course there are some operators who insist they are not willing to invest in IMS but are looking for a common customer database, a common control platform, or just migration of platforms to reduce costs. IMS architecture is just a way of making things happen faster. Of course these are questions that must be properly addressed in a formal business case analysis.
We believe that with the right partners and patience, long-term savings will be substantial, increased revenue will be achievable, value-added services will be possible and the whole industry will benefit. The key word to remember is 'will'.                                           

Making it happen
As operators rationalise their network infrastructures for efficient implementation of new applications, an old silo-based implementation style is being replaced. Instead, a horizontally integrated application implementation is offering key benefits: it loosens control of telecom equipment vendors over new service deployment and opens the field to a range of 3rd party developers who can use open standards and interfaces; it re-uses various application components leading to fast deployment and quick time to market; finally, it creates an independent layer between the applications and the network which will provide many benefits, such as run the same application across multiple access networks.
The benefits are many and significant, giving operators a degree of independence and a range of content options that have not been available before. The challenges posed by IMS, however, are not insignificant.
Realising return on investment is not straightforward without a compelling application that can kick off deployment or a true cost-saving plan that can be used for the replacement of outdated existing service platforms. We believe that IMS is justified only if it can generate true cost savings by commoditising most of the network elements. It should allow integrated features that enhance the time to market for new and in-house services – with presence management, location and voice/video control through IP domain as the basis of these services.
We also recognise that a seamless evolutionary path from current network architecture to an optimised IMS environment depends on matching IMS strategy to the evolution of the various access networks, where the key in the mobile area is the development of the radio network to support the speeds required for IP quality of service.

Technical challenges
Return on investment and a smooth transition are not the only evolutionary drivers; there are other important issues that must be addressed:
Operators must find an appropriate method of charging the IMS events. This could be through implementing an online charging architecture that bridges the current gap between prepaid and postpaid, proposing alternatives to flat rates; by using an intelligent rate for the valued service when several applications are used in combination; or by renewing silo solutions hosting the current voice prepaid services.
A central data repository should also be created to allow sharing of information between applications, both static and dynamic. Many or even most of today's applications have their own data storage and a separate data repository for new applications is often set up, creating challenges in migrating or pointing to data from existing applications.
A further challenge is the customer self-care experience which must be developed in order to allow fully automated provisioning of new services on the devices. These devices must be able to run new applications without inappropriate amounts of complication. The execution of the service to the device will, at least the first time, also imply a delivery of the client to the device. This must be efficient and work the first time to assure the customer experience of the service.
The final challenge is in connecting with partners: a hosted service logic (ASP) must be established; outsourced service logic, building on existing SDP initiatives must also be created, along with a highly secured access gateway.
If a move to IMS is to realise the right outcome, the long view is the only sensible one – this transition could last as long as ten years. The focus should be on the core services that can easily be enhanced by IMS. Operators should ensure they partner with a company that is able to open up new markets. Service continuity will be a critical factor and it is essential the customer experience is not adversely affected by this technology.•                                                 

Frank Papso is Business Development Principal for Telecom, Media & Entertainment Global   www.capgemini.com

Tony Wilson, COO, Martin Dawes Systems and Warren Buckley, director of portfolio convergence at BT, describe the relationship between the two companies and how MDS is enabling BT to become more responsive and agile

As every operator working in the highly competitive global telecoms industry knows, success depends on business agility, innovative, easy to use services and putting customers first. This is especially true in the emerging market for converged services where end users increasingly want anywhere, anytime connections over any device.
Converged services need converged companies to supply them: companies that have both telecoms and IT expertise/experience and the next generation solutions and networks to deliver. Just such a company is Martin Dawes Systems which has over 20 years experience as a virtual mobile operator running next generation networks and creating converged software solutions for the market. Acting as a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE), it offers a suite of specialist subscriber management systems, processes and end-to-end managed services and platforms to its virtual mobile telecoms clients. “We work in partnership with and as part of our customer's operation, becoming almost an internal department helping them to get products to market fast,” explains Tony Wilson, COO at Martin Dawes Systems.
 “Since we understand both the telecoms and IT sides of the business and can draw on our history as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), we can help operators become more flexible, customer centric and responsive.” 
Demanding markets and competitive challenges means operators must react fast, but few have the unified network architecture, supporting technologies or internal organisation needed for rapid response to shifting customer demands.
Typical of most former incumbents and major telcos, BT has a complex legacy environment with over 4,000 systems, hundreds of networks, over 20 million customers and several thousand products. Launching converged services efficiently requires a single unified platform. BT's answer was to choose a combination of in-house core technical innovation and partnerships with expert, trusted third party suppliers. “A big challenge for BT was in deciding how much to do for ourselves and how much to outsource, to get through a partnership or buy in,” says Warren Buckley, director of portfolio convergence at BT, which has created a close working partnership with Martin Dawes Systems to help deliver its fixed mobile convergence (FMC) service BT Fusion to SMEs.
 “We partnered with Martin Dawes Systems because of their huge mobile experience combined with custom built products for SMEs. We have a unique, fully managed billing and CRM service which enables us to deliver speed to market plus the level and complexity customers demand.
 “The requirements of business users in the SME space are more complex than those of consumers, especially from the mobile point of view, and represent a divergence from traditional PSTN services. Mobility entails the flexibility to offer bundled minutes, handle tariff changes and an on-going hierarchy of relationships within and between businesses. FMC needs to offer the best of both worlds and we therefore needed to converge,” explains Buckley. “We made the big decision to go to a third party for an array of different services including CRM, billing, revenue assurance and tariff set up and control.”
Explaining the relationship further, Wilson says his company acts as a department within BT, fully understanding its requirements and providing a stable group of experts who help develop new ideas for meeting tight time schedules and fostering business agility.
Traditional telco response to launching new products is to build a separate systems stack for each one. The result is a legacy of proprietary and largely manual systems; disconnected islands of automation and an environment in which valuable business information and customer data are made largely inaccessible because they are stored and duplicated in numerous separate silos. All of which adds up to inefficiency, slow response to market demand and an architecture unable properly to support convergence, business agility or customers – a situation which can be ameliorated by creating third party partnerships.

Facing other challenges
New entrants, many of which are retail brand management companies or content rights owners with little or no telecoms experience, face other challenges. For them the priority is to select a network provider plus an expert partner to whom they can outsource end-to-end service delivery. With no legacy, these MVNOs are, however, agile competitive companies used not only to anticipating customer needs but also to delivering high quality services. They are introducing retail business practices into a sector which has historically been dominated by incumbent operators with little competitive pressure to change.
Whether existing or new, all operators must cut the cost of doing business whilst simultaneously   ©            introducing a raft of innovative multimedia services terminating on different devices.
The old vertically structured point-to-point architecture is too cumbersome to support this fast moving world in which products may be quickly set up and torn down; where customers demand different billing models and on-line account management across the services they use.
 “In today's market operators are trying to re-position themselves and focus on convergence,” says Wilson. “The convergent model is now all about offering quadruple play services which combine wireless and wireline voice with broadband and video in one bundled package.
 “The industry is re-establishing itself. Operators are re-building and reforming the MVNO model to generate new business. They are outsourcing to third party MVNE suppliers and have a choice between a pure IT organisation or one which is a telecoms aware IT provider.”
Moving to a partnership model meant BT did not have to build/add more infrastructure or undertake the difficult, time consuming and complex task of integrating new systems into the existing estate. With the benefit of a partner that understands its aims and supplies experienced staff, plus a suite of unique product options, this relationship has helped BT launch Fusion into the SME market very fast. Buckley estimates that working with the managed services model shaved nine months off the launch time. “It would have taken us between nine months and a year to launch working with our legacy environment, but working with Martin Dawes Systems' OSS/BSS and CRM solutions we did it in three months,” he says.
Having a strong brand image is not the only ingredient of success; it is also a matter of being able to react fast, differentiate services from competitors, offer choice and value added services which can be made personal. Operators must capitalise on market opportunities – a difficult task both for established telcos and new, often inexperienced entrants. Outsourcing or partnering with an MVNE is often the quickest and most reliable route to market since it avoids the need to build, run and manage systems and adds OSS/BSS solutions and expertise.

Experienced intermediary
Acting as an experienced intermediary between the network provider and the MVNO, Martin Dawes Systems manages and runs the required operational systems to react quickly and deliver multimedia products. Depending on the contract, it also handles relationships with all the third party suppliers including the content providers so essential in converged services.
Exploiting all the flexibility of its next generation network, Martin Dawes Systems supports MVNOs quick reactions in testing, launching or tearing down new converged services fast. Tariffs can be changed equally quickly and discounts applied as appropriate, with different billing models offered to selected customers. “As we have provided a convergent architecture for years, we can deliver services very fast and connect to wireless and wireline networks seamlessly,” says Wilson. “We deliver complex services to corporate and SME customers and by employing the managed services model, act as an IT department.”
Martin Dawes Systems reduces risks and, by helping to maximise capital investments and compete effectively, speeds up the Return on Investments (ROI). MVNOs are therefore free to concentrate on core competencies, brand management and adding value in the form of innovative converged services, customised and targeted at specific users.
According to Yankee Group statistics, the MVNO market will generate service revenues of $10.7 billion by 2010 and British regulator Ofcom estimates that already they account for 5.5 million UK phone contracts.
Running and managing multimedia services depends on linking both the network OSS and customer facing BSS systems, which is a challenge best met by automation and a move from proprietary to open standard OSS/BSS estates.
While it is a slow, expensive process, the big operators are creating service oriented architectures and building next generation networks based on open standards. They are restructuring internal processes/systems and putting customers at the heart of their businesses.
However, for smaller operators, new entrants or even for incumbents wanting to move fast into new markets, rather than building their own systems or buying off the shelf and then customising, perhaps the quickest, most cost effective option is to outsource to an MVNE.
 “From an IT perspective, operators need managed, secure data which is easy to manipulate and made available to customers easily. They need service oriented architectures, Java and open standard OSS/BSS systems. They need marketing, customer relationship management systems and everything in between,” explains Wilson.
 “Convergence sits between two camps – in both the OSS and BSS environments,” he says. “From an OSS perspective it is delivered over intelligent networks. In the BSS space, operators must be able to bill for converged services, and contact centre agents must respond fast and accurately to customers' questions.”

Separate platforms
Among other processes, convergence affects billing systems. Traditionally, mobile pre and post-paid customers were managed on separate, independent platforms with the former handled in the BSS environment and post-paid billing supported by IT departments. In converged networks both are handled on the same billing platform managed by staff with both IT and telecoms expertise.
At the heart of Martin Dawes Systems' product offering is the dise3G pre-integrated end-to-end billing and CRM solution that handles multi-service, multi-subscription pre and post-paid billing on the same platform, making it quick and easy for operators to launch multimedia services. Operators not only use the system to manage all aspects of the customer relationship fast and economically via self care features, but also to run critical business processes including sales, marketing, order management, rating and revenue assurance. The open standard CPP billing and CRM solution provides telcos with all the flexibility and control needed to support converged services, different billing models and customised solutions.
Unconcerned about underlying technologies or the considerable complexities, costs and challenges of moving to next generation networks and services, end users are most interested in price, convenience and the quality of service. The point is to deliver better products and make them easy for people to use – convergence is also about simpler, better, end user experience.
“Convergence is the future,” believes Buckley. “Business users are starting to see real benefits as we move away from simple connectivity into bundled minutes delivered to any device over any network. Connectivity will be fundamental, but services will become increasingly important and we will work with Martin Dawes Systems for billing, billing analysis and related solutions.
“One of the most positive aspects of the relationship between the two companies,” he notes, “is that as BT realises its long term plan of moving all products, services and customers onto its 21 century network, it has a supportive, expert and flexible partner.”
That the relationship is strong and mutually beneficial is evidenced by the fact that Martin Dawes Systems won the top prize for best billing and OSS implementation at this year's World Billing Awards for its work on the SME version of BT Fusion. Similarly BT has won a number of industry accolades.
In addition to its high profile work with BT, Martin Dawes Systems works with telcos large and small, new, old, fixed, mobile or with ISPs running circuit switched or IP networks. For those MVNOs new to the business it has developed its 'telco in a box' solution which has all the OSS/BSS and other systems required to switch on, deliver and bill services. “We offer an end-to-end platform from account activation through to customer care and billing for convergent products,” explains Wilson, who believes the goal is to support operators' changing requirements and give them an efficient, flexible platform to move forward into converged services.
Choosing an MVNE is a decision to create a close and long term partnership based on trust – it is about sharing risks, increasing customer numbers and reducing churn.                                                     

Priscilla Awde is a freelance communications writer