Month: December 2017

EXFO: Astellia Acquisition Foretells New Differentiation in Service Assurance Market

by Ron Westfall, posted in OSS/BSS/CEM
Ron Westfall – Research Director, Service Provider Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:

  • EXFO is advancing the completion of its acquisition of service assurance specialist Astellia, expanding its mobile assurance portfolio and customer footprint.
  • However, EXFO must use the Astellia acquisition to forge competitive differentiation in areas like fixed-mobile convergence assurance and 3D geolocation applications.

In December 2017, consolidation of the service assurance market heated up. EXFO announced the opening of its all-cash voluntary tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of assurance specialist Astellia that EXFO does not already own, following the off-market acquisition of 33.1% of Astellia’s equity. The move follows Nokia’s 2017 acquisition of OSS supplier Comptel, due in good part to Comptel’s FlowOne closed-loop service assurance assets. The acquisition bolsters EXFO’s existing service assurance footprint, adding Astellia’s base of 120 operator customers. Equally important, EXFO locks up Astellia’s mobile service assurance expertise, augmenting its existing fixed and mobile assurance portfolio. However, EXFO cannot rest on its laurels in nearing the completion of the Astellia acquisition. In 2018, EXFO must find ways to differentiate its portfolio through the integration of the Astellia assets, as operator demands for automated assurance in complex multi-play service environments will escalate and will not wait for slow-on-the-draw suppliers because of integration distractions. Continue reading “EXFO: Astellia Acquisition Foretells New Differentiation in Service Assurance Market” →

Amdocs Industry Analyst Summit: Complexity Is Our Friend

by Peter Jarich, posted in Net Transformation, Vendor Transformation
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich – VP, Consumer Services and Service Provider Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:

  • On December 5-6, Amdocs held an Industry Analyst Summit to provide an update on its product portfolio, corporate strategy, innovation efforts, and customer attraction across its business lines.
  • One constant across the product and business line updates is an expectation that telecom networks and services will continue to get increasingly complicated – and that Amdocs will benefit by addressing that complexity and educating its customers.

Amdocs is a fixture in telecom networking and service enablement. It’s not surprising, then, that across our telecom networks research, assessments on the vendor and its positioning are plentiful, including:

Continue reading “Amdocs Industry Analyst Summit: Complexity Is Our Friend” →

Network Slicing: Technology or Business Innovation?

by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things, Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich – VP, Consumer Services and Service Provider Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:

  • As a concept for running diverse logical networks over a common physical infrastructure, network slicing has been linked closely to 5G network transformations and 5G’s aspirations of servicing the needs of consumers alongside myriad industries.
  • As it gets put into practice, however, a number of questions around slicing still need to be resolved: How granular will slices be? Which networks and network elements will be sliced? How open will slicing be to third parties? What can network prioritization teach us? Most of these questions revolve around business considerations, not technology considerations.

Last week, the GSM Suppliers Association, along with a who’s who of telecom networking vendors and industry associations (Nokia, Huawei, ETSI, GSMA, NGMN, IEEE, 3GPP), hosted its 2017 Network Slicing Summit, billed as “the first virtual event on 5G technology to serve all industries.” We had the honor of delivering a presentation as part of the summit. You can view a copy of it here. Continue reading “Network Slicing: Technology or Business Innovation?” →

After Years of Halfhearted Green Initiatives, the KPN-Led Sustainability Initiative Might be a Sign of a Real Movement Afoot

by John Byrne, posted in Vendor Transformation
John Byrne – Service Director, Service Provider Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:

• KPN is taking a leadership position in driving its vendor community toward more sustainable practices. Other operators are likely reviewing KPN’s “Circular Manifesto” as a template for how they should revise their own sustainability initiatives.

• Telecom technology and software vendors are increasingly being pushed by their key operator customers to commit to adopt manufacturing and production practices that rely on reusable or recyclable components, as well as renewable energy sources.

Dutch network operator KPN, which provides mobile and fixed-line service to nearly 40 million customers in The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France and Spain, caused a stir in October, announcing an aggressive environmental initiative that could become a model for operators looking to beef up their “sustainability” credentials. Continue reading “After Years of Halfhearted Green Initiatives, the KPN-Led Sustainability Initiative Might be a Sign of a Real Movement Afoot” →

5G: The Coming Business Transformation

by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things, Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich – VP, Consumer Services and Service Provider Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:

  • The basic tenets of 5G are well understood: what we’ll use it for, when it will arrive, that it will be a major opportunity with a solid base of subscriptions within the next five years.
  • A number of other commonly held beliefs about 5G – that it will drive business innovation and core network transformations, introduce network slicing and represent a platform for spectrum innovation – must be questioned.

Last week, the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley convened a forum on “Network Transformation in 5G.” We had the honor of delivering the opening presentation. You can view a copy of it here.

The main message was simple – if not necessarily comfortable. Continue reading “5G: The Coming Business Transformation” →