SUBSCRIBE NOW
IN THIS ISSUE
PIPELINE RESOURCES

Small and mighty: OSS/BSS microservices

By: Tim Young

In the quest to build CSPs that are more agile and better able to launch and scale new products and services, many a magic bullet has been touted. Time has shown that there is no one thing that can transform technologies and corporate cultures, but there are overarching strategies that can simplify processes and change the way that service providers do business. For a long time, we talked about how CSPs could adopt some of the agile methods and practices of OTT players in order to beat the vandals back from their gates…

» read this article

Putting Omnichannel at the Heart of Operations

By: Dominik Pacewicz

The traditional telecom industry has to reinvent itself in the face of strong competition from Over-The-Top (OTT) service providers. Consumers are becoming more vocal in demanding faster, cheaper and more personalized services delivered directly from their providers. In response to these demands, OTT companies such as Amazon, Skype, Netflix and others are serving up their entertainment and messaging services while eating away at operators’ profits. These services were built digital-first and with customer experience at their heart, which is part of the reason they are so successful…

» read this article

Competing with Blockchain Collaboration

By: Shahin Arefzadeh, Ph.D.

In the old good days, everyone was relatively happy with the state of the telecom industry. But now? Those days are long gone. Today, it’s downright tough to play in this market. Competition from web giants, the virtualization of telecom networks and functions, the looming boom of billions of IoT devices, rampant digital transformation challenges, declining traditional revenues, and competitive pressures from OTT are just some of the challenges that keep service providers up at night—to name a few…

» read this article

The Modernization of IoT Networks

By: Dave Kjendal

In recent years, we’ve seen a combination of technologies converge to become the foundation of change across the network landscape. Cloud computing has become more dynamic in its capabilities, creating new opportunities for application and service creation and delivery. Virtualization, microservices and adaptive security models have also become key elements of modern network design as the digitization and connectedness of our world moves forward at a rapid pace. These cornerstone technologies have also been driving factors behind the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT)…

» read this article

Delivering on the ONAP Promise: How It Will Transform Service Provider & Enterprise Networks

By: Mark Abolafia

The road to virtualization has been a long one in many ways, and the devil is certainly in the details—networking challenges, organizational processes, costs and BSS/OSS integration concerns are many aspects to be considered. One industry buzzword that holds many promises for streamlining and simplifying that journey is ONAP. But will it stand up to the hype? The open source platform could transform service provider networks, which would have a positive trickle-down effect for enterprises, if its potential unfolds…

» read this article

Enabling Cloud-Like Services Over Automated & Interconnected Networks

By: Pascal Menezes

If there is one common theme that has emerged from recent conversations with top service provider experts, it is the sense of urgency that their companies must move quickly to address customer needs and adapt to competitive threats in the era of digital transformation. Last month’s edition of Pipeline did a great job of framing the primary areas of transformation that service providers need to consider: enterprise transformation, organizational and cultural transformation, and network transformation…

» read this article

How Chatbots are Ruining the Customer Experience

By: Cameron Weeks

In the past few years, chatbots—products fueled by Artificial Intelligence (AI)—have emerged as one of the most popular technological advancements and are irrevocably transforming the business landscape today, especially within the contact center industry. And it’s easy to see why. These intelligent digital assistants are driven by the promise to resolve customer requests quickly, cheaply and consistently—at all hours of the day (or night). This hot-button trend will only continue to gain momentum in the customer service space…

» read this article

Patent Pipeline: Mobile Apps

By: Alec Schibanoff

In Terminator Genisys, the fifth installment in the Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator movie franchise, Kyle and Sarah time travel from 1984 to 2017 to stop Skynet. Upon arriving, once of their first observations is the ubiquity of smartphones. “Does everyone have one of these?” they ask. Well, yeah. Remember looking for a pay phone to call the office? The original concept behind a mobile telephone was to give salespeople and repair technicians just that ability from remote locations. Like every other innovation, cellular technology has gone generations past its original concept…

» read this article

Accessing the Blackbox for Nextgen Networks

By: Ahmet Ozturk

As the industry heads for more complex network environments—including 5G and IoT—it is becoming even more of a necessity for engineers to collaborate and combine their expertise in achieving network key performance indicators (KPIs). Yet communications service providers remain focused on traditional network equipment and utilize large numbers of engineers to manage it. Ahmet Ozturk, chief technical executive of Innovile, explains how the introduction of greater automation enabled by SON (Self Organising Networks) and Unified NMS (Network Management System) solutions enables service providers to better utilize the experience of their engineers by managing the complexity of the future network and focusing on higher value-add tasks…

» read this article

Telecom Industry News

By: Scott St. John, Pipeline

This month brought news of a massive $146 million merger between T-Mobile US and Sprint Corporation to accelerate nationwide 5G innovation. Collaborations between enterprises resulted in several key proof of concept innovation scenarios and use cases to advance preparations for 5G. And eight countries in western and central Africa gained access to the latest in big-screen cinematic technology, and the FCC slammed Tele Circuit Network Corporation with a $5.33 million fine. WeDo spared no expense to make sure the event was success, valuable, and enjoyable for all participants…

» read this article

Letter from the Editor

By: Tim Young

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” - Charles Dickens Pipeline launched its first issue over 14 years ago, as a publication dedicated almost exclusively to operations support systems: pure OSS. You can still read every issue we’ve ever produced in our archives, from Vol. 1, Issue 1—with articles around NGOSS and the AT&T–Cingular merger—through to the current issue that is live now. Over that time, the siloed nature of communications software has been replaced by a more holistic approach to network and customer management…

» read this article

AI and Data Driven Network Transformation for Next Generation Telecom Services

…

» read this article
FEATURED SPONSOR:

Latest Updates





Subscribe to our YouTube Channel