With TM Forum's Management World 2013 conference officially underway in the French Riviera, Tuesday morning's keynote speeches were connected by a clear and common thread. As the number of mobile users around the globe continues to climb, and the mobile device technologies they wield become more powerful than ever, there exists myriad opportunities for mobile operators to either stumble or succeed.
As Ben Verwaayen, former CEO and director of Alcatel-Lucent and BT, put it best, communications service providers (CSPs) are companies that people love to hate and hate to love. As the bar rises in terms of the possibilities mobile technologies hold and what users are coming to expect from their CSPs, there will be more opportunities for users to be disappointed.
Verwaayen emphasized that the challenge lies not in the technology, which in most cases is readily available, but in delivering on the promises made to customers, no matter where they might be located. This is something that Infovista has long been an advocate of, as evidenced by Mentum Planet's recent recognition in the Pipeline 2013 Innovation Awards. Mentum Planet 5.6 is a next-generation wireless access network planning, management and optimization solution that allows CSPs to address every stage in the lifecycle of their networks. This is the key to delivering the highest quality of service (QoS) to customers, from remote rural environments to heavily trafficked urban areas.
CEO delegate of France Telecom-Orange (which will be known simply as Orange come July 1, 2013) Gervais Pellissier, touched upon many of the same issues in his keynote address. Pellissier explained that paramount to the success of CSPs is knowing where investments are needed most and where they will have the greatest impact. As network capacity increases, so do the challenges associated with optimizing and managing them.
As we have discussed in this blog, end users think in terms of quality of experience rather than infrastructure efficiency. It is up to CSPs and the tools at their disposal to align these elements and deliver the best possible QoS for their customer bases. And it all starts with effective end-to-end network planning, service assurance and optimization across all the network domains, from the core network to the end-users.
Check back throughout this week, as we will discuss more of the featured topics from TM Forum's Management World 2013.
