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It's a big, wide world out there. Communications were once limited to earshot and sight-range. Then they were allowed to travel as far as a cable could stretch. Eventually, they entered the air and became both invisible and pervasive in a way few could have dreamed of before.

The growth of the wireless market is, of course, fueled by two seemingly disparate facets of the communications space.

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Happy New Year! At this point, dear reader, you’re probably settling back into your desk after a nice holiday respite (or perhaps you are the industrious type who worked right on through) and are getting ready for a whole new year of developments, deployments, and other exciting things in the telecom world. In this month’s NewsWatch, we’ll sum up the most interesting news bits from the end of last year and take a look at a few that are fresh from 2009. We’re happy to know that you chose to read Pipeline...

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As industry analysts and consultants here at NPRG, we're like radar operators. A significant amount of our time is spent scanning the broad horizons of the communications industry—alert to changes, threats or opportunities that might affect technology vendors, service providers or a myriad of other vested industry participants. One of the areas actively being tracked at our Chicago offices is the emerging wireless arena, because, in spite of the extraordinary promise pent up within the space, a cloud of confusion...

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Enterprise Product Management (a term preceded in form and function, and, for the sake of this article, used essentially interchangeably with terms like product lifecycle management and product catalog) is something that we explored in some depth in our last issue (December, 2008). In that issue, I mentioned that I had been fortunate enough to take part in a panel on EPM at TM Forum's Management World Orlando, during which I sat down with TM Forum Chairman Keith Willetts, Tribold CEO John Rainger, ...

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Competitive pressure is heating up, and mobile operators worldwide are making the move to Internet protocol (IP) networks to bolster their revenues with enhanced services. As voice becomes increasingly commoditized, providers are scrambling to create new service mixes that provide the “always-on,” interactive communications that people have come to expect from the Internet. The demand for mobile multimedia services like mobile Web, gaming, mobile instant messaging, and video-on-demand is driving a profound network transformation...

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The 2009 Mobile World Congress is coming up next month in Barcelona, Spain, from February 16-19. In order to get our readers a more in-depth look at this massive event, we’ve conducted a Q&A with GSMA spokesman David Pringle. In addition, we’ve surveyed several OSS/BSS vendors to find out why they think attendees should stop by their booths during the event.

Pipeline: What are some of the biggest highlights of Mobile World Congress 2009?...

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Today, service providers face increasing demands to provide Internet messaging, business applications, and information services to mobile users while maintaining end-to-end service management capabilities. The challenge becomes one of not only ensuring adequate service, but also ensuring a happy coexistence of all critical networked applications. In order to achieve the highest level of service performance, it has become increasingly imperative for service providers to change the way they manage their networks.

For a very long time, the perceived wisdom has been that if only enterprises could gain a 360° view of the information they hold – provided that information is also accurate and up-to-date – they could revolutionize the way they do business. Their customers would be happier, their businesses would run more efficiently, new revenue opportunities would be discovered, new product designs would be improved, and campaigns would be better targeted and managed. The problem is finding the road that leads to this converged simplicity.

Back in 1979, when Kermit and Fozzie took off on their adventures in Jim Henson's classic, they were truly footloose and fancy free... and completely cut off from anyone and anything not immediately around them or available by pay phone. This made for some pretty excellent family fun in the movie theater, but would seem pretty foreign to most non-Muppets traveling around nowadays. Mobile voice, video, and data are so pervasive that it's hard to remember a time in which they weren't. That may make for a lousy backdrop...