Time to improve operations or cap services

There are more and more signs, in the mergers and acquisitions space in particular, that vendors are finally getting smart on the network and operations management problem. Operators need to raise top-line revenues, lower costs, or both.

Since supporting the top line has proved elusive or impossible to the network vendors, that means they will either have to improve operations or see their customers cut capex. The fact that AT&T and Time Warner Cable are already looking at tiered pricing and caps is a strong signal that the time for a decision is near.

Once providers take the PR hit by introducing pricing tiers/caps they will not go back even if revenues or operations costs can be improved later. We estimate there is likely only about nine more months to fix the monetization problem before operator solutions like reducing traffic through caps will take hold.

The question now is whether the equipment vendors will step up and play a role or cede it to OSS specialists; the Tektronix acquisition of a mobile data customer experience management firm suggests that many think equipment vendors will miss the OSS opportunity as they are missing the service-layer opportunity.