Operators are feeling the pressure. For decades they’ve managed the thorny issue of balancing customer satisfaction with growing their bottom line, but in today’s app-centric mobile environment this situation has become even more challenging. Operators have found themselves on the back foot as subscribers are making fewer calls and are sending fewer texts using traditional network services.
Growing competition from IP-based disruptive players like WhatsApp and Skype has enhanced subscriber expectations in terms of reliability and, in turn, encouraged the industry-wide shift towards network functions virtualisation (NFV). This is largely due to the promise of increased service agility. However, despite this powerful benefit, NFV still represents a challenge for operators in terms of managing the subscriber experience.
As operators continue to build out their data networks and migrate to new virtualised environments, they can’t risk any service disruption. If subscribers experience any issues while using the network, particularly with current demand for data services, there is a real risk that they will begin to question its quality and even the capabilities of their service provider. It’s no surprise, then, that operators have long relied on the ability to monitor and troubleshoot their network to identify where subscribers are having issues and fix them quickly. This process has been streamlined in recent years to the point where network problems can often be resolved before the subscriber even becomes aware of them – but the move to a virtualised network environment presents a fresh challenge.
The challenge facing operators is that NFV’s biggest benefit is also its ‘Achilles heel’ in terms of managing the subscriber experience. The increased service agility offered by NFV lets operators adopt the OTT culture of ‘quick failing’, by which they can trial new innovative services in rapid succession at a much lower cost and greatly reduce burn rate to more effectively compete with disruptive internet players. However, being able to adapt and change the network in minutes rather than days increases the potential for disruption to occur. With this in mind, adopting effective test and measurement tools is arguably even more important in a virtualised environment, particularly if operators will be continuously testing new services.
To effectively compete with OTT players and to move as quickly as they can in a virtualised environment, operators will need access to service assurance tools that can keep up. To beat the OTT competition at their own game, operators need to ensure their applications can deliver the quality of service required – and as an operator branded service, that level of expectation will extend to the network too.
Handled correctly, the elasticity and flexibility offered by a virtual network, coupled with coupled with visibility into the traffic flowing across it, will give operators full control over how they prioritise their own branded services over OTT applications. Not only will this approach help increase brand loyalty as subscribers become accustomed to the greater quality of service received from their chosen operator, it will also help generate new revenue streams.
Given the popularity of OTT services and increasing demand for mobile broadband access, it’s inevitable that operators will virtualise their networks. However, by partnering with the right test and measurement provider, it will be possible to balance service agility with network reliability, and ensure positive impact on their bottom line.
The author is Said Saadeh, senior director PLM, Platforms and Infrastructure, Tektronix Communications.
