Dear Colleague:

It would be difficult to overstate the role that mediation plays in the world of telecom.

It's nothing less than the lifeblood of billing and charging - and a slew of other upstream systems like fraud detection, interconnect payables, traffic analysis -- even security.

For years, mediation was an essential, but easily forgotten component in a carrier's OSS/BSS.

Traditionally, circuit-based mediation was relegated to the role of collecting usage information and feeding Call Detail Records (CDRs) to downstream apps such as billing and fraud.

Perhaps the first paradigm shift for mediation was when IP networks arrived. With IP, the once monolithic circuit switch was now broken up into functional components: gateways, controllers, application servers. So the information needed to bill and analyze usage was no longer located on one, convenient CDR. Mediation was needed to correlate events across multiple elements and convert them to a billing-friendly IPDR.

Yet another shift occurred when advanced wireless networks arrived. In a 3G network today, mediation has emerged as the central "service control supervisor" of the network -- managing access to services, monitoring prepaid money balances and postpaid credit limits.

Today's mediation pioneers are stretching the limits of mediation's mission even further, managing content services: settling with partners; controlling interactive games; and helping carriers optimizing revenues and network utilization.

Dittberner's New Report

To understand the solutions being used by carriers to assure and grow revenue from their valuable customers is the purpose of Dittberner's new 144-page  report: The Telecom Mediation Market:  Carrier Requirements for Billing/Charging Mediation, System Consolidation, & Real-Time Control Applications.

Dittberner sizes this telecommunications software market at $342 million in 2006.  The report analyzes the forces shaping this market, providing case studies of how carriers are using forward-thinking business practices and software to capitalize on the opportunities.  Here are some highlights from the report:

Who Can Benefit from the Report

Whether you're a telecommunications executive aiming to improve your mediation technology or a vendor delivering mediation or billing/charging solutions, the Report will help you discover:

• What are the most important market priorities?. . .
• Which vendors have industry market share and are leading in specific niches?. . .
• Which players should you partner with?. . .
• What emerging trends can your company capitalize on?
• Which are the growing market sectors and which are in decline?

Please scan the executive summary and full table of contents below. You'll see why this report delivers the tactical and strategic information you need to fully understand where this customer assurance and analytics market is  headed.

Sincerely,

Dan Baker
Research Director, Dittberner OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase

P.S.  The  Telecom Mediation Market study is one research module in Dittberner's on-going OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase covering the breadth of telecom software innovations on a yearly basis.

P.P.S.  To demonstrate the value of this report's intelligence, we're happy to arrange a briefing so you can personally preview sections of the report on-line.  Simply call Dittberner's sales offices at 301-652-8350. 

Table of Contents

A. Executive Summary (2 Pages)

B. Mediation's Role in the BSS (7 pages)
   1. Mediation: Making Sense of Evolving Network Chaos
   2. Mediation: The Basics
   3. Mediation Functional Breakdown
   4. Shielding Billing Systems From The Network
   5. Birch Telecom -- Cost Reduction & Business Expansion

C. Convergent & Active Mediation (15 pages)
   1. Convergent Mediation - Definition
   2. Drivers to Active or On-Line Mediation
   3. Why Convergent Mediation is Essential in 3G Networks
   4. Mediation Enabled Wireless Web Innovations at DoCoMo
   5. Active Mediation - Definition
   6. Features of Active Mediation
   7. The Risky Business of Real-Time Video to the Handset
   8. nTels Advanced 3G Mediation at South Korea Telecom
   9. European Wireline Carrier Migrates to Consolidated Mediation 

D. VoIP & IP Services Mediation (4 pages)
   1. Why Mediating Voice over IP is a Challenge
   2. How Mediation Systems Collect IP Usage Records
   3. VoIP Mediation at Level 3 Communications

E. Traffic Routing & Analysis (3 pages)
   1. Profitable Intercarrier Traffic Routine
   2. Traffic Analysis for Security

F. The Market for Mediation Solutions (3 pages)
   1. Why Mediation is Essential to Next Generation Networks
   2. Mediation Versatility in Billing System Consolidation
   3. In House vs. Outsourcing the Mediation Solution

G. Mediation Technology Trends (8 pages)
   1. Evolving from Active Mediation to Real-Time Correlation
   2. Real-Time Control Applications
   3. Deep Packet Inspection Billing & Mediation
   4. Mediation System Customization
   5. Centralized vs. Distributed Mediation Systems

H. Mediation Market Trends (6 pages)
   1. Mediation Market Challenges
   2. Mediation is a Mature Market Now
   3. Mediating IMS-Lite
   4. What's Behind the Industry Push to IMS
   5. The Slow Penetration of 3G Wireless
   6. Techno-Culture or Better Wireless Business Model
   7. Why Telcos Like Independent Mediators

I. Mediation Market Forecast (6 pages)
   1. Service Provider Size
   2. Mediation Applications
   3. OEM vs. Telecom Carrier
   4. Solution Delivery Type
   5. Geographic Region
   6. Service Provider Type
   7. Direct vs. Indirect Distribution
   8. Vendor Market Share

J. Vendor Recommendations (5 pages)
   1. Partnering Opportunities in Proven Markets
   2. Network Load Balancing & Content Pricing
   3. The Impact of WiFi and WiBro Markets
   4. What Low Market Share Mediators Must Do
   5. Does It Make Sense to Diversify into Wireless Applications?
   6. Where Customization Makes Sense
   7. Large Scale Billing Consolidation
   8. Can Mediators Attack Non-Telecom Markets?
   9. Keeping Track of Mobile Devices

K. Vendor Profiles (63 pages)
   1. Ace*Comm
   2. Amdocs
   3. Comptel
   4. Hewlett-Packard
   5. Intec Telecom
   6. Narus
   7. nTels
   8. Openet
   9. Telesciences

L. Case Studies (20 pages)
   1. KT Korea Deploys WiBro Mediation
   2. Vodafone Spain Convergent Mediation
   3. Telenet Bandwidth on Demand

Market Segments & Forecasts

Dittberner has sized and forecasted the worldwide telecommunications mediation software market in this report.  Our forecast model is based on several parameters: Dittberner's historical tracking of the OSS market; Dittberner’s forecast of Next Generation Network (NGN) services growth; discussions with carrier experts; and interviews with software and consulting vendors.

The report provides 2005 base revenue and 2006 to 2010 forecasts for the global market in the following segments:

Telecommunications Mediation Software
- by Application: 
      Customer Behavior Analysis, Operations/Sales, Network &
      Services, Business Management
- by Geographic Region:
      North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, Latin America
- by Carrier Size:
      Tier 1 (>$10 bill. revenue), Tier 2 ($250 mill. to $10 bill.),
               Tier 3 (<$250 mill. revenue)
- by Channels of Distribution: Direct vs. Indirect
- by Service Provider Type:
      Circuit wireline, Broadband, Wireless, Cable/DBS, MVNO
- by Delivery Method:
      Software license, Prof. services (software related), 
          Service bureau/ASP

Case Studies

1. WiBro Wireless Broadband Implementation at KT

KT (formerly, Korea Telecom) is South Korea's largest telecom company. Its revenues in 2005 were $12.6 billion, putting in the ranks of global tier 1 operators.  KT is the privatized incumbent operator of Korea and offers circuit voice, broadband, and wireless service.

By 2004 the Korean telecom industry had evolved quickly.  3G services and broadband services were widely adopted.  In a country where 33 million people or 73% of the population have internet connections and 38 million (out of a 48 million population) use mobile phones, the idea of a mobile internet was appealing. 

Being a fixed line operator, KT also foresaw the broadband market becoming saturated as early as 2008.

Since KT had over 6 million broadband subscribers, WiBro (Wireless Broadband) service seemed to be the answer.  KT is expecting that 10 million subscribers will subscribe to WiBro by 2011.

WiBro was devised to overcome the speed limitation of mobile CDMA phones.  WiBro base stations offer an aggregate data throughput of 30 to 50 Mbit/s and cover a radius of 1 to 5 kilometers.  It was also designed to provide mobility for moving devices up to 120 km/hr compared to Wireless LAN having mobility up to walking speed and Mobile Phone having mobility up to 250 km/hr. 

The case study shows how KT implemented their BSS for WiBro.  In nine diagrams, the case provides deep details on:

• Overview of KT's Business

• Introduction to WiBro

• The WiBro Service Model

• WiBro's Marketing Driven System Requirements

• Billing & Mediation Objectives

• Architecture of Billing and Mediation

• WiBro Product and Content Management System

• WiBro Integrated Customer Information Systems

• WiBro OSS/BSS Information Flow Diagram

2. Vodafone Spain Convergent Mediation

Vodafone Spain, part of the Vodafone Group is the second largest mobile operator in Spain and one of the most success carriers within the Vodafone Group.

Services offered include: voice, messaging, data, VF live Contents , 3G Services, and push to talk.   Roughly 46% of the subscriber base is prepaid.

After little more than 10 years in operation, Vodafone Spain’s IT organization knew it had hit a wall operationally.  With almost 31% of the Spanish mobile market and 14 million subscribers, the company’s BSS capabilities strained to keep pace with its constantly evolving network and the myriad new services being offered.

 The organization was faced with a host of legacy issues, and at the same time, it needed a sensible strategy for migrating to voice and data convergence and IMS. The current system was a mixture of the legacy Ericsson BMP application running in batch mode and collecting usage for voice and SMS services. A separate HP IUM platform handled MMS/GPRS usage.

The case shows how Vodafone Spain implemented a unified mediation system to deploy convergent services and prepare for future real-time services that cut across many legacy systems. 

3. Telenet Bandwidth on Demand

Telenet is the largest provider of broadband cable services in Belgium. Its primary services are cable television, high speed internet and telephony services, primarily to residential customers in Flanders. In addition, Telenet offers services to business customers all across Belgium and in Luxembourg under its brand Telenet Solutions.

Telenet has 500,000 telephony customers, 700,000 broadband customers, and 1.7 million television customers. Telenet is certainly one of the leading operators in terms of leveraging broadband.  For example, Telenet has its own music portal and a Pay Per View channel to allow movies and TV shows to be streamed to a PC.

Belgium's broadband customers are among the sophisticated broadband users worldwide.  Belgium, for instance, is 12th in per capita broadband access among countries of the world, higher than the UK, Japan, France, and the U.S.

 While its flat rate plan was succeeding, Telenet felt that by offering customers a bandwidth on demand service, customers could sign on for the higher bandwidth needs required to download movies and music, plus make profitable use of peer-to-peer networking on an as-needed basis.  This would allow Telenet to capture some incremental revenue and better serve customer's needs.

The case study explains the rationale for delivering a mediation-enabled bandwidth-on-demand system.  Diagrams show the system architecture and sample customer portal screens.

Vendor Profiles & SWOT Analysis

Several software vendors have established themselves in the telecom mediation marketplace.

In this section, Dittberner provides in-depth coverage on 9 of those companies, analyzing each of them in 6 to 8 page profiles delivering:

• Historical expertise and background
• Significant investors
• SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
• Significant customers
• Major partnerships
• An explanation of key products

Dittberner's profiles deliver a highly compressed snapshot of vendors in a market place and each profile is organized in the same format so you know immediately where to go to find what you need.

The profiles also include a "Dittberner analysis" section, a candid assessment of where the vendor stands against its competitors and the suitability of its products or services for the needs of the market.

A detailed estimate of each vendor’s 2006 revenue market numbers is also supplied. A list of vendors profiled follows:

About Dittberner’s
OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase

Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase is a market research service designed to help telecoms and OSS/BSS vendors track OSS/BSS innovations and companies.

The KnowledgeBase provides a sweeping view of the marketplace with analyses on everything from Billing and Middleware. . . to Provisioning and Service Assurance.

Dittberner feels it’s important for a telecom research firm to make the leap from market analysis (seeing all the parts) to true market synthesis (pulling all those parts together).

Our research goes beyond beyond discussing market trends to synthesizing those trends in the context of market opportunities, threats, and their strategic impact to your business.

Bottom line: When you finish reading Dittberner's research, you don't ask: "Ok, what's it all mean?"

Web Database and Desktop Analysis Software

Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase delivers a fully organized body of knowledge and analysis across two interfaces: 

1. On-Line Database for searching the text and visuals of our analysis modules, case studies, and vendor profiles, and 
2. A desktop Software Application (written in Microsoft Visual Foxpro) with market segmentation and forecast data that you use to view customized data tables, graphs, vendor comparisons, and print documents.  Note: all data and forecast tables are also provided in  Microsoft Excel and comma delimited files can be created too.

Below are some sample screens (NOTE: the examples show non-revenue assurance and non-fraud companies)

Search analysis in On-Line Database. . . 

Compare vendor market strength in grids. . .

View, modify, and print our estimates of company financials. . .

View market share graphs in international currencies. . . 

Compare company financials. . .

Perform fast text searches on the desktop. . . 

About Dittberner Associates

Founded in 1966, Dittberner Associates, Inc. is an international market research and consultancy with over 70 Telecom Service Providers, and in excess of 100 telecom suppliers as clients. The firm specializes in areas of OSS/BSS, NGN Switching, Broadband Access, and Wireless market segments. . . more

Dittberner Associates
44641 Montgomery Avenue
Bethesda MD 20814

Tel: 301-652-8350
To order or get more info, contact Wyatt Greenwalt
wyatt@dittberner.com