Triple-play: The Hype and the Reality (Cont'd)

"The business case for triple-play is much more complex," says Carlsson. "The strongest driver here is competitive pressures." However, that is not to say that they would have to offer all of those services themselves. "We very much expect to see a proliferation of business models and increasing use of partnerships and strategic alliances to deliver against the convergence vision�we would expect telcos to partner with content providers to deliver a piece of the package. The choice of content strategy and business partners will be incredibly important in this space."

The Nuts and Bolts
Combining three services that used to require three separate pieces of OSS is going to require some serious management and integration. The back office functions, and how the OSS handles things like billing, provisioning, and network monitoring is ultimately going to be what makes or breaks the triple-play advantage. Older OSS software, which was often proprietary and unhandy, has given way to more standardized approaches, but these systems will now have to become even more complex, manage more systems, offer more features, and still retain ease of use. That's a tall order, but fortunately, the industry is delivering.

Quality of service, order fulfillment, and network performance management are other issues that must be addressed in delivering bundled services. BSS issues, in particular billing, also need to be addressed. "Perhaps around 40% of total service provider OSS/BSS spend is on billing. The challenge for service providers is to build convergent billing capabilities without substantially increasing op-ex. In the next couple years, with the emergence of IMS-based services, real-time charging will be another significant challenge."

Major software firms are already hard at work in solving these challenges. IBM in particular has a portfolio of service offerings in the OSS/BSS space revolving around service provisioning, order fulfillment, quality of service, performance management, and billing in collaboration with its business partners. In addition, Carlsson notes that a critical factor enabling the delivery of integrated services is migration from legacy to IP environments, enhancing quality standards, and achieving both op-ex and cap-ex savings.

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