Today’s telecom sector is significantly different from what it was twenty or thirty years ago. Because of the complexity of telecom networks, carriers have no choice but to rely heavily on current OSS and BSS technologies to keep their businesses competitive and consumers delighted.
To meet their customers’ rising needs, telecom operators are continually investing large sums of money in network transformation initiatives (4G, 5G, SDN, NFV, FTTx, and so on). Network transformations introduce new network capabilities while also necessitating OSS and BSS transformations to allow the delivery of new services to end-users.
OSS and BSS conversions are frequently overlooked and are not carried out concurrently with network changes. Their absence complicates telecom operators’ operations and results in suboptimal monetization of new network capabilities.
The reason for this disparity is that network departments frequently have larger visibility inside telecom businesses than OSS and BSS departments. OSS and BSS departments are often kept distinct from network departments, and network departments evolve faster than OSS and BSS departments. This is the source of the problem, and telecommunications should consider network transformation in combination with OSS and BSS technologies.
A telco can invest billions on the latest network technology, but in order for this technology to be useable by customers, OSS and BSS systems must be in place.
Why would a telecommunications company invest in relatively new OSS and BSS systems? Let us first attempt to deconstruct what OSS and BSS systems truly perform and why they are so critical to telecom operators.
What do operators require to conduct business?
Customers are the most vital component. To be more specific, a geographical region where potential clients live and work. The fixed and mobile networks that cover this area constitute the second component.
But the most important question is, what do operators require to run a successful business?
The answer to this issue is more complicated and introduces a number of other problems, but we can all agree that the following factors are critical for successfully running a telecom business:
- Capability to swiftly provide new appealing services to ensure income streams
- Capability to swiftly and precisely activate services
- Capability to handle unanticipated technical difficulties very quickly
- Capability to regulate expenses and eliminate needless money waste
- Capability to charge clients for services used
- Capability to retain clients by offering a positive customer experience
All of these elements are covered by systems known as Operations Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS).
Telecoms are continuously changing and evolving to keep up with new technology, thus OSS and BSS systems must adapt to these developments as well.
What does OSS signify in the telecom industry?
Before constructing a new network or altering an existing one, network planning is generally the first step. To be cost-effective and provide the greatest outcomes, the network must be properly constructed. In order to reach every consumer, it may need to span a variety of geographic profiles, such as mountains, valleys, islands, villages, and urban metropolis regions. It needed a team of experienced engineers and a room full of maps to plan the future network 25 years ago. Thanks to OSS, everything is now automated.
The network must be built when the planning has been completed, approved, and finances have been assigned.
It is not unusual for the surrounding environment to shift during network exploitation. New buildings, for example, or a sports stadium that can accommodate thousands of people can be erected. Even though the network has been meticulously designed and established, there is a continuing need for network optimization — a never-ending process made feasible by OSS.
Service fulfillment is the activation of services sold to end customers and getting consumers to start utilizing all the telecom operator has to offer – including calling, texting, browsing, watching TV, and so on – on all kinds of devices, fixed and mobile, in all kinds of places. This entails the automatic setup of several network and platform components offered by different suppliers cooperating, interacting, and behaving as a single system in the view of the end-user. All of this is made possible, once again, by OSS.
Service Operation Center As the Center of OSS in Telecommunication
Assume that a base station goes down unexpectedly, or that construction workers break the optical connection linking your residence. Every telecom company has a section called the Network Operation Center (NOC), where employees can detect even the smallest disruption in the network.
The major focus of Network Operation Centers used to be on monitoring network equipment such as routers and set-top boxes, but today, individuals working in a NOC are focused on monitoring network services. Many telecommunications no longer use the name NOC, instead referring to them as Service Operation Centers – SOC or Service Management Centers – SMC. Regardless of language, the function of such a department is known as service assurance, and it is made feasible by OSS.
How can BSS assist commercial and customer-facing operations in telecommunications?
However, operators must also earn a profit. After all, it is a business. They must control their revenue.
Some consumers may have postpaid subscriptions, while others may use prepaid cards. Some may have a certain number of free minutes, while others may have a set quantity of free data. Regardless of the customer’s selections, there must be a process in place to ensure appropriate invoicing and charges. These systems guarantee that the consumer pays the proper fee for services consumed at various places and times.
Additionally, there must be automated up-sale systems in place to boost a telecom operator’s income by offering more services to the consumer. When a client consumes all of the Internet traffic included in his data plan, the data rate might be automatically lowered, but the consumer receives a text message offering to purchase additional data at full speed. All of these operations are essential components of the BSS system.
Customers should call customer support if they need to contact their operator, report a problem with a service, update their billing address, or just ask a question regarding services. Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is the program that handles these operations and is also part of the BSS system.
To efficiently administer a network and company, OSS and BSS collaborate.
These are just some of the processes covered by OSS and BSS systems, but even from some of these examples, it is clear that OSS and BSS systems are the lifeline of any telecommunications, linking technology with the customer experience.
Today’s multi-vendor communications networks are massive in size and complexity. Huge amounts of data must be handled and evaluated in near real-time in order to provide a consistent income stream for the telco and keep customers delighted. There are already over 25 billion linked gadgets in the globe, with a projected 50 billion by 2030.
Today’s telecom sector is significantly different from what it was twenty or thirty years ago. The amount of complexity in telecom networks, platforms, and services has surpassed human comprehension. Telecoms have no choice but to heavily rely on current OSS and BSS systems with extensive analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities to make optimal decisions and keep their businesses competitive and consumers delighted.
The finest methods to operate a network and the best ways to run a business are provided by OSS and BSS.