Bill & Charge

18 May, 2020

BICS Advanced Analytics helps mobile operators separate humans from machines to enhance IoT roaming

Mobile operators – especially the visited operator that provides network access to inbound roamers – are struggling to monetise inbound M2M/IoT connections because of a lack of transparency, the limitations imposed by commercial agreements and the complexity that surrounds access control for roaming machines. Without transparency and control, operators are faced with competing on connectivity alone, with the inevitable result of price commoditisation and decline in market share. (more…)

06 March, 2020

Wind Tre CIO: How Qvantel digital transformation partnership redefines customer interaction

Bringing together separate fixed line and mobile operators under new ownership is among the most complex integrations a communications service provider (CSP) can undertake. However, for Wind Tre, it provided an opportunity not only to unify operations but to transform the business for the digital era, writes George Malim.

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10 February, 2020

Accenture launches response service for AXA XL’s business customers hit by Cyberattacks

Accenture now provides its Cyber Incident Response Service to help AXA XL’s clients respond to and recover from cyberattacks. (more…)

22 November, 2019

New ways to monetise and market 5G to digital savvy customers

Everyone likes to talk about 5G uses cases, but customers are asking, what sets 5G apart from current 4G services?

A recent study by Strategy Analytics tells it like it is – for 5G to be successful, network operators will have to take service innovation to the next level if they want customers to adopt their 5G plans.
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05 September, 2019

Shock as survey shows customers see operators as digital service providers

Reports of telecoms operators enduring a lingering decline to become commoditised infrastructure providers may have been exaggerated if the results of a new survey of mobile operators’ customers can be extrapolated. For once, the survey, commissioned by Openet, presents positive news for operators. It says that customers are increasingly willing to buy digital services from operators and are looking to them for digital innovation. George Malim reports from Dublin, Ireland.

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28 August, 2019

Inside Swisscom’s mainframe replacement project

Mainframe replacement is a phrase that turns the blood to ice in the veins of most telecoms IT professionals but these ambitious projects are starting to happen with greater regularity as mainframes reach their fourth – and sometimes fifth – decade of operation and the cost of operating them starts outstrip the risk associated with replacement. VanillaPlus managing editor George Malim recently interviewed Markus Tschumper, the head of general IT services at Swisscom, to learn about the communications service provider’s recent migration of traditional mainframe workloads to the cloud, running on a software defined mainframe from LzLabs.

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29 July, 2019

Unitymedia drives value from big data analytics

As communications service providers (CSPs) rise to the challenge of generating value from their big data analytics, Philipp Gröne, a senior delivery expert at Unitymedia, explains how the German service provider has uncovered real cash from its deployment of Guavus big data analytics – an estimated seven-digit euro sum annually in opex savings and a nearly one point increase in overall net promoter score (NPS). (more…)

19 July, 2019

Volaris acquires MDS Global to add to telecoms software portfolio

BSS provider MDS Global has been acquired by Volaris Group, the operating group of Constellation Software, in a twelfth acquisition by the company in the Communications and Media vertical.

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30 May, 2019

Executives and IT must collaborate to define 5G business cases, says Deutsche Telekom’s Meijer

With 5G at the centre of mobile operators’ strategies, the challenge is to avoid another cycle of intense infrastructure investment which enables the business cases of other organisations. Instead, operators need to take up a new role that monetises the enablement they provide and places them in the connected ecosystem as more than the providers of connectivity.

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01 May, 2019

Oz-based Hansen Tech snaps up Sigma to build create-sell-deliver software for telcos, media and high-tech companies

Global provider of catalogue-driven software, Sigma Systems, announced today that it is being acquired by Hansen Technologies for an undisclosed sum. Hansen is a specialist in billing, data management and customer care solutions for the energy, water, pay-TV, and telecommunications industries. (more…)