Amdocs is trying to ensure a more predictable, profitable evolution toward 4G through technologies it announced this week at Mobile World Congress for Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) standards.
The new products include planning tools, real-time charging and a mobile applications storefront. The new solutions are part of Amdocs’ CES Portfolio.
The company said while deploying 4G networks may be a long way off, service providers must begin to prepare now. The products Amdocs now has for doing that include:
The Amdocs Mobile Build Automation Pack automates standard engineering processes for any mobile network, including rollout, expansion and transmission upgrade, reducing deployment and ongoing operational costs. It will be generally available next month and will offer specific support for LTE and WiMAX. It ensures that backhaul transmission links are proactively managed for optimal capacity utilization and cost.
The Amdocs App Store helps service providers develop and sell digital applications for a 4G world. It enables collaboration among third-party application developers and content providers and provides an online consumer retail experience. This is the newest innovation from Amdocs Interactive, which offers digital commerce, partner collaboration, web self-service, search and, with the recent acquisition of ChangingWorlds, personalization and mobile portal solutions.
Amdocs CES Charging 7.5T provides real-time, complex event-rating. It is built to accommodate exponential growth in data traffic and is based on a highly-distributed architecture that allows for massive scalability at significantly lower hardware and software costs. It also provides real-time policy management capabilities that comply with 3GPP LTE requirements.
Amdocs BSS Pack enables any service provider to launch and monetize any network, up to and including 4G networks and beyond. It includes Amdocs Charging 7.5T, Self Service, Ordering and Contact Center, plus pre-integrated best-practice business processes, such as pre-defined rating schemes and collection paths for mobile services, software-specific system-integration services, and support for third-party hardware.
Larry Goldman, practice leader of Global Telecom Software at Analysys Mason, said the transition to 4G will bring considerations that span the length of carriers' infrastructure and systems, from cell site backhaul to real-time events management to partner collaboration. “Those who address these issues early will be able to deliver more services of higher quality at lower cost, giving them more flexibility in the more competitive times ahead," Goldman said. "Amdocs is a leader in OSS and BSS, and has distilled years of experience into its offerings. As carriers venture into 4G's promising yet uncharted waters, a partner like Amdocs can bring much-needed insight and vision."
Amdocs’ new App Store will help protect serviced providers place in the value chain. It provides a collaborative environment in which service providers and their third-party developer partners can develop, sell and profit from the innovative digital applications and value-added services that are the hallmarks of the digital 3G and 4G world.
Amdocs App Store is a collection of packaged digital commerce, partner collaboration and personalization capabilities, and development tools designed to help service providers open their infrastructures in a controlled manner so that third-party developers and content providers can collaborate, create, market and deliver personalized applications and services to consumers via any mobile device.
