For some time now, service providers have been talking about “mining” their networks for data to help them better prioritize customer traffic in the event of an outage, put together more targeted promotions, and otherwise translate the bits and bytes that traverse the network into information they can use to better serve customers — especially the most valued ones — and drive revenues. That’s beginning to happen, particularly with wireless network operators and in Europe; and some believe more service providers will adopt these service- and performance-monitoring and management practices over time, especially as they move to new access technologies.
That’s what Tekelec is betting on. The signaling and next-gen switch company recently added privately held Steleus Group Inc. to its new acquisitions list. The $56 million Steleus deal gives Tekelec, which already offers performance monitoring via SS7 links with its Sentinel solution, an “applications” play in the next-generation technologies realm, says Kim Parker, Tekelec senior product manager. It also helps Tekelec, which has traditionally focused on North America, build a stronger presence in Europe, she adds, noting that most of Steleus’ 100 carrier customers are abroad.
Steleus, which is noted for its GPRS wireless and VoIP solutions, supplies applications operators can use to ensure quality of service, detect fraud, and analyze customer behavior and service usage. “Tekelec and Steleus tools look at both network and business applications,” says Parker. “That’s where you get into optimizing networks, looking at the customer base, making sure intercarrier bills are correct.”
Steleus and its personnel and products will form the cornerstone of Tekelec’s new Communications Software Solutions business unit, which also will include existing Tekelec applications. Parker says as a result, Tekelec will have a direct feed into the Steleus application, which like Sentinel originally had been a probebased solution, so the company can offer a single system to address such applications as end-toend call trace, end-to-end records, and more, for both SS7 and next-generation networks.
Randy Custeau, worldwide marketing manager at Agilent, says while performance metrics in traditional networks are generally looked at through passive monitoring, injecting simulated data or using element management systems, the migration of the wireline voice network to packet technology and the move in the RF domain to data means the data associated with customers is now moving to the edge. “All the decision-making is not around how to the manage network, instead it’s on the edge,” he says.
Agilent sells the Wireless Quality of Service Manager for 2.5G and 3G carriers. It simulates service performance from multiple edge points to give the provider an idea of how the service, and end users’ access to content, is working, says Custeau.
The company also has Customer Centric Service Manager software that can take transactions and group them by customers, says Custeau, “so we can say GPRS service for BMW is running at this level — or for BMW marketing is running at this level.” That enables the service provider to offer SLAs based on customer or even customer department. This particular Agilent solution, which applies to both wireless and wireline networks, is operational and is in multiple trials, mostly in Europe and in small pockets of Asia.
Custeau says service providers want to prioritize their operations through revenue streams, and most are starting in the wireless context. For example, he says, Vodafone has affiliates in 15 to 20 countries worldwide, so the company wants to offer consistent service to customers wherever they are on the network. “This whole service management [area] has been evolving for some time now,” he says. “It’s network data to determine service impact” and can be immediately mapped to the highest-value customers first. “We feel that shift is significant,” he says.
Adds Karl Whitelock, lead strategist for OSS at Agilent CSG: “The key market driver for making that happen is customers now have choices. Customers can easily move carriers.”
