Dear Colleague:

Telecom mergers are so commonplace these days that the headlines rarely surprise us anymore.

However, one recent merger, Alcatel's acquisition of Lucent Technologies is a defining moment of sorts, for Lucent is the home of Bell Telephone Laboratories, formed in 1925 and pioneer of the telecom industry.

The owner of an incredible 28,000 patents, Bell Labs invented Unix, the transistor, the laser, and circuit switching technology.

Of course, it wasn't as if one fine day Bell Labs submitted a patent defining the entire circuit-switched telephone network.  No, the building of that network was an evolutionary process encompassing thousands of patents from Bell Labs, Siemens, Marconi, and many other contributors.

Well, 80 years later, it seems telecom history is about to repeat itself.

For just as it took decades for 20th century folks to engineer and groom the PSTN network into what it is today, we're now in the 21st century trying to engineer and groom IP-packet networks -- originally designed to carry best-effort internet and email traffic -- into reliable, high-quality carriers of  real-time voice, video, content, and data services.

We're years away from that goal.  True, companies like Vonage have succeeded in delivering voice over broadband service, but the quality of VoIP over broadband is still too inconsistent to make a significant dent in mass markets.

Likewise, carriers such as SaskTel have launched video service over DSL to markets of 35,000 homes, but no carrier has yet succeeded in scaling  telecom-network video to reach millions of subscribers.

All these goals are attainable, of course.  It's just that huge engineering efforts and many years of refinements will be required.

So what telecom technology will take us there?  Frankly, our cup overflows with network technology, server technology, and industry standards.  What's needed more than new telecom infrastructure are software and processes to better manage the infrastructure that already exists.  

Network management, then, is telecom's ticket to tomorrow.  Telecoms desperately need network assurance and service assurance innovations to help maintain high quality customer experience for today's complex services that cross multiple technologies, vendors, and interconnect partners.

Network management can also deliver the value-add required to reproduce the robust, real-time, and high-quality attributes of the PSTN in the highly-versatile content delivery engine we know as IP.

Given what we've said, Dittberner believes network management is a highly strategic area for future telecom investment.   

But what areas of network management are the most critical?   And which vendors provide the best solutions to assure telecom's future?

Well, getting answers to such questions is the purpose of a new Dittberner research report, Telecom Network Assurance, Service Assurance and Remote Test / Monitoring Solutions.  The 241-page Report analyzes this complex market and shows how you and your company can find profitable solutions, invest safely, and/or avoid excursions into market sectors that are either too competitive or too specialized to attract enough paying customers.

Opportunities abound.  Dittberner sees the network/service assurance and remote network testing & monitoring market growing from $2.8 billion in 2005 to $3.7 billion in 2010.  

But where can your company make a difference?  Well, here are some highlights of our analysis to provide some perspective:

• Service Quality Management on the Rise -- The traditional network assurance methods of fault and performance management provide no direct measure of actual service quality as perceived by the end user.  The research explains the role of Service Quality Management (SQM) solutions that analyze services though superior service modeling and correlating feeds from performance management, signaling, and network probes.  Using a detailed case study of O2 Germany, you'll see how this innovative wireless operator is profitably leveraging its current data sources and a new SQM tool.

• Performance, Signaling, Fault Management -- Which Sectors Offer the Most Promise? - Just because service quality management is on the rise doesn't mean network assurance is no longer needed, though clearly, some assurance sectors will see their fortunes rise, while others will steadily decline.  The Dittberner report analyzes the industry forces at play and delivers conclusions that could influence your future planning.

• Wireless Operators Lead the Assurance Race -- Wireless operators are the biggest buyers of assurance solutions today, but what about the future?  Will the broadband sector gain share?  How significant will cable operators and MVNOs be to the future assurance market?  The report's detailed forecasts and analysis help answer these questions.

• Entry of Large Test & Measurement Firms into the OSS Assurance Arena. Recent mergers have brought two very large test & measurement companies, Tektronix and Anritsu, into the assurance business acquiring INET and NetTest.  Tekelec also joined the fray, acquiring French signaling vendor, Steleus.  The Dittberner report explains the significance of these moves, tracks the business of the players, and provides a SWOT analysis of each company.

• Infotech Giants Buy Assurance Vendors. A flock of big-name, infotech companies -- IBM, HP, EMC, and Computer Associates -- paid big sums of money to acquire assurance vendors Micromuse, Peregrine, Smarts, and Concord Communications.  What was the motivation behind these moves and what's the significance to the telecom assurance market?   Here, the report delves into the strategies of each player and forecasts the likely scenario of future events.

• Small Vendors with Innovative Assurance Offerings.  In the course of our investigation we found three small companies making significant new contributions to the assurance industry.  One is breaking new ground in the SLA reporting sector; another has developed a highly scalable approach for analyzing radio network data; and the third has developed a unique method of optimizing the mobile data services experience.  We profiles all these companies in detail within our report.

Whether you're a carrier executive aiming to improve your network management infrastructure or a vendor delivering assurance and related solutions, the Report will help you discover:

• What are the most important market priorities?. . .
• Which success strategies of other operators can you adopt at your own  telecom organization?
• Which vendors have industry market share and are leading in specific niches?. . .
• Which OSS players have the right background and market experience to partner with?. . .
• What emerging trends can your company capitalize on?. . . 

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 telecom provisioning and inventory systems are headed.

To access this market intelligence today, contact Dittberner's offices at 301-652-8350.

Sincerely,

Dan Baker
Research Director, Dittberner OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase

P.S.  This Report is one research module in Dittberner's on-going OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase covering the breadth of telecom software and OSS  innovations.

Table of Contents

Telecom Network Assurance, 
Service Assurance and  
Remote Test/Monitoring Solutions

A. Executive Summary (2 pages)

B. Definition of Network/Service Assurance Functions (1 page)

C. Performance Management (4 pages)
1. Telecom Performance Management Overview
2. The Demand for Better and Faster Customer Reporting
3. Performance Management's Key Capabilities: 
   - Fast Database Synchronization
   - Security, Baseline Trending, 
   - Graphical Circuit View, Filtering
4. Performance Management Consolidation

D. Fault Management & Root Cause Analysis (4 pages)
1. Telecommunications Fault Management Functions
2. Why EMSs Are Not Sufficient for Fault Analysis
3. The Consequences of Poor Root Cause Analysis
4. Interconnect Fault Management at Cingular Wireless
5. Intelligent Filtering & Alarm Consolidation
6. Correlation by Network Management Consolidation
7. The Expert Systems Approach to Fault Correlation
8. The Diagnostic or Code Book Approach & its Limitations

E. Telecom Service Quality Management (SQM) (10 pages)
1. Integrating Multi-Vendor, Multi-Technology, Multi-Layer Networks
2. The Challenge of Monitoring a Service's Quality
3. The Benefits of Service Quality Management
4. SQM and Service Modeling Example: an MMS Service
5. Service Management -- Provisioning vs. Assurance Differences
6. Migration of OSS Systems via Federation
7. Creating Enterprise Bundles with the Service Model
8. Gaining Multiple Views of Quality
9. Service Quality Management at O2 Germany
   a. Why the MMS Service was the First SQM Priority
   b. Vendor Selection & Rollout
   c. Data Inputs to the System
   d. Fixed Mobile Convergence -- Wireless and DSL
   e. Future Enhancements -- Auto-Correction & Portal Reporting

F. Telecom Service Level Agreement (SLA) Monitoring (2 pages)
1. The Components of Service Level Agreements
   - Connectivity, Multi-Source Data Collection & Correlation,
   - Contracting Parties, Service Being Offered, Time Flux
   - Metrics Being Measured, Penalties, Dynamic HTML Reporting
   - Drill Down, Reversible vs. Irreversible Alerts
2. Verifiers Aid the Detection of IP SLA Violations

G. Telecommunications Remote Testing & Monitoring (3 pages)
1. Passive vs. Active Monitoring
2. The Progression of Test: From Lab to Live Network
3. The Advantages Test Vendors have in OSS

H. Wireless Network Assurance & Service Assurance (3 pages)
1. Service Assurance for Mobile Operators
2. The Challenge of Wireless Web Service
3. Serving Businesses Where Wireless Service is Mission Critical
5. Measuring Service Quality in Wireless

I. Signaling Systems & SS7  (2 pages)
1. Signaling Impact on Service Assurance
2. Managing Service Complexity

J. Telecommunications Triple Play Service Assurance (4 pages)
1.Quality of Service and Trouble Management
2.Interconnect Assurance
3.Video Quality Monitoring
4.Technician Coordination with Network Assurance
5.Video Settop Monitoring

K. Assessment of OSS Industry Mergers & Acquisitions (2 pages)
1. Internal Assurance Market Consolidations
2. Test & Measurement Company Acquisitions
3. Infotech Giant Acquisitions

L. Market Threats (2 pages)

M. Vendor Opportunities (3 pages)

N. Carrier Recommendations (1 page)

O. Market Segmentation & Forecast Analysis (5 pages)
1. How Dittberner Develops its Market Segmentations
2. Market Growth Forecast
3. OEM vs. Service Provider
4. Distribution Channels
5. Geographic Region
6. Service Provider Type
7. Service Provider Size
8. Type of Network/Service Assurance or Remote Testing Solution
9. Networks/Devices Assured

Case Studies

1. Bell Canada Enterprise Customer Fault Analysis & Reporting Consolidation

Bell Canada Enterprises is Canada’s largest communications company, the incumbent in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern Territories and a CLEC operator in the western provinces.

A highly fragmented fault environment made Bell Canada's alarm filtering and correlation cumbersome and inefficient.  Each fault platform, in turn, had its own reporting mechanism, greatly complicating roll up into customer portals.  Finally, maintaining such a large OSS environment was costly in terms of hardware and software licenses and OpEx. 

The case explains how Bell Canada renewed its fault analysis system to better serve its enterprise and small medium business customers who were expecting much broader service offerings, better monitoring capabilities, and Service Level Agreements.  (5 pages included 4 figures)

2. Managing Multiple Remote Wireless Networks in Brazil -- Claro Brazil, America Movil

Claro is a subsidiary of América Móvil and is one of the largest mobile operators in Brazil, with more than 16.2 million customers.  América Móvil is a publicly traded wireless conglomerate that provides services to over 93.3 million wireless subscribers in Latin America.

Claro's acquisition of 6 widely-dispersed TDMA cellular network operators in Brazil presented a significant challenge because the six former networks would need to continue to operate their own TDMA networks independently.

Brazil is a very large country, slightly smaller than the U.S. in total area. There was no choice but to keep the TDMA networks in place and modernize via a GSM overlay.

The case shows how Claro was able to take its widely dispersed network operations provide both central management and remote network management simultaneously. (5 pages including 4 figures).

3. Performance Management Systems Integration & Business Customer Portals at COLT

COLT Telecom Group a UK-based telecom with operations in 32 metropolitan areas in 13 European countries. COLT provides wireline services to business clients.  COLT offers a full range of voice services ranging from switched telephone service to Intelligent Network services, making up 52% of the business. Data services makes up the remaining 48%.

COLT needed to seize better management control of its pan-European operation in 13 countries and 32 metropolitan areas. The company had separate network management systems in each country and realized that consolidation was a big priority, especially given the move to a more service management oriented business with VoIP services ramping up. COLT also knew that managing reporting and performance collection from a single platform would give a boost to the productivity of its network staff.

The case shows how COLT conducted its consolidation and how it successfully leveraged a single performance management system as manager of managers.

4. Centralized and Unified Management of a Multi-Vendor Network -- O2 Germany

O2 Germany is the third largest wireless operator in revenues offering both postpaid and prepaid products and serving more than 7 million subscribers.

O2's OSS environment was comprised of multiple generations of proprietary systems and technologies, making the introduction of new systems in the environment complex and often costly.

Further complicating the company's OSS, it manages its network across four regions. The network surveillance center is centralized and maintains the full service management view, coordinating the operations of the various regions.

The case study shows how O2 Germany achieved a lower cost environment through partial automation.  (11 pages including 9 figures).

5. Network Management Improvements at Telekom Austria

The Telekom Austria Group is active in both wireline and wireless markets and has, over the last few years, expanded beyond Austria to several countries in eastern Europe.  All together the company serves almost 9 million wireless subscribers and 3 million fixed lines across its regions.

The case illustrates the steps Telekom Austria has taken to steadily improve its OSS through phased projects over several years.

Vendor Profiles & SWOT Analysis

Some 37 OSS vendors and network equipment providers have established themselves in the telecommunications network assurance, service assurance, and remote test market in recent years.  

In this section, Dittberner provides in-depth coverage on 27 of those companies analyzing each of them in 5 to 7 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
• A detailed breakdown of the company's 2005 network/service assurance revenue numbers derived from company-supplied guidance and/or Dittberner's own estimates.

These vendor profiles and technical specs are a great time-saver: they deliver the kind of information you'd otherwise have to spend weeks tracking down. A list of vendors profiled follows:

In addition to the companies profiled above, we include 2005 market estimates for the following companies:

Market Segments & Forecasts

Dittberner has also sized and forecasted the worldwide assurance market for network/service assurance software 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 forecast data for the global market in the following segments:

1. OEM vs. Service Provider Market
2. Distribution Channel
   - Direct vs. Indirect Channels
3. Geographic Region
   - North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, Latin America
4. Service Provider Type
   - Wireline Voice, Broadband, Wireless, Cable, Reseller, Other
5. Service Provider Size
  - Tier 1, 2, and 3
6. Functional Categories of Network/Service Assurance
  - Fault management & analysis
  - Performance management & analysis
  - Service quality & SLA management
  - Network optimization
  - Remote testing & monitoring
7. Type of Network/Device Assured/Remote Tested
  - Radio Access Networks|
  - ATM/Frame Networks
  - Broadband Networks
  - Transmission Networks
  - Fixed or Mobile Core TDM & Mobile HLR
  - IP & Corporate Networks
  - Service Delivery & IN Machinery
  - Mobile, CPE & Home Terminals
  - Other Networks/Devices

Interactive Charts and Tables

Dittberner offers interactive software to enable you to access very specific market share and segment information on vendors in the revenue assurance marketplace.  The following are examples of drill-down breakouts you can perform through a downloadable Excel spreadsheet you can alter for your own "what if" analyses.

Sample Interactive Market Share Table. . . 

Sample Interactive Table for Comparing Vendors. . . 

Display Forecast charts by international currency. . . 

About the Dittberner
OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase

Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase^TM is a market research designed to help telecoms and OSS/BSS vendors track the OSS/BSS solutions and innovations.

The Dittberner KnowledgeBase helps carriers and vendors get control of this fast-growing body of knowledge and competitive advantage. . . more

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

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Tel: 301-652-8350
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