High-speed access has emerged as a major theme in the last two years. A barrage of access announcements is touting video, DSL and voice technology that could help enable triple-play services.
Eric Jorgensen, Micromuse continent director: Africa, explains: "While triple-play services are being deployed, the new market imperative for service providers is moving these services to a converged IP environment to lower costs and improve flexibility in their service offering.
But what are triple-play services? The combination of voice, data, and video service offered as a bundled service for a price that is less than the price of the individual services.
For the customer, it means more services, more choice and more value. For the service provider, triple-play offers an opportunity to win and retain customers and offer high value services over the same broadband line.
Triple-play services enable telcos to offer video in addition to their traditional voice and high-speed Internet offering and voice services to cable offerings. This literally pins telcos against cable providers, all vying for the same customers.
However, locally traditional TV watching is a one-way transmission, with the TV signal being received by the terrestrial aerial or satellite dish, triple play services will enhance current interactive TV (ITV) services which utilise a feedback path from the set-top decoder which connects to the service providers back-end services using satellite or telephone systems.
SA`s leading satellite TV service provider is consistently launching additional interactive services to viewers enabling instant and easy access to all their interactive services available on their current platform which includes interactive surveys, personalised channel services and TV mail amongst others.
Many believe this is a zero sum game for the service providers, with content providers and customers ultimately being the winners. Consumers get a lower bundled price, more content, more services and one point of contact, and one bill.
Who will win, telcos, satellite or the cable companies? The battle lines are drawn. The winner will be one who can secure the content that consumers want and offer the unparalleled quality of service-in the new world you will have choices!
Integrating voice, video and data IP services on a single broadband connection for millions of subscribers requires extensive planning and significant upgrades across the network, and most importantly, it means that service providers are now responsible for managing the service quality of not just the broadband line, but also of the voice, video and data services.
In many cases, providers of premium content such as Time Warner or Disney will not risk their brand integrity by entering into partner agreements with service providers that cannot guarantee the service quality to support video on demand and similar services. "If a user experiences poor video quality during a viewing of Nemo, that is viewed by the content provider as brand erosion," say Scott Sobers, director of solutions marketing for Micromuse. "Content providers have immense libraries of content, but will not offer this content unless quality of service (QOS) can be guaranteed. Not just across the network, but down to the TV in your home." That`s why major carriers and alternative broadband service providers are stepping up their technology efforts in the face of competition for so-called "triple-play" services.
In many cases, triple-play services are being deployed by innovative, alternative telco operators although larger telecom carriers are assessing the market. But what`s the technology behind the high level services that such operators are able to offer to their customers?
Sobers suggests when service providers look to implementing next generation operation support systems (OSS), they should find products that can show a strong track record in providing the return on investment promised at the beginning of a project. Quick wins in a lengthy OSS implementation, whilst providing early ROI, also keep the customer happy and confident. Service providers should search for innovative and pragmatic solutions to common OSS integration issues. Micromuse has helped market-leading alternative service providers in Europe, including Bredbandsbolaget and Com hem in Sweden, Catch Communications in Norway, Cablecom in Switzerland and Fastweb in Italy to deliver triple play services across their existing infrastructure.
"Managing customer satisfaction and the quality of delivered services are key issues for carriers and cable companies offering triple-play services.
"Service providers need to apply solutions which will increase customer satisfaction while reducing costs by monitoring the quality of services in real-time and automating service assurance processes. With a proactive and business-focused approach to network management, problems are resolved before they affect the user experience," says Jorgensen.
"Service providers must look toward applications that enable operators to gain insight into the perceived customer experience for voice, video and data services. Allowing operators to compete more effectively and reduce churn by proactively monitoring the user experience in real-time - from the end-users perspective - will allow them improve customer satisfaction.
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