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Mobile operators have become extremely adept at building networks capable of handling explosive volumes of traffic, even as subscribers continuously change devices, download applications and find new ways to communicate. Rather than simply transporting data, operators today are realizing they can profit from it.
To deliver a great experience, networks must access information from every device, application, service and network element a subscriber touches. This yields a tremendous amount of data – big data. Operators are just beginning to understand how to leverage “pipe data” to operate more efficiently, reduce churn, predict consumer behavior and preempt service impacts.
The business and technological challenges of mining the relevant information contained in these mountains of data may seem difficult, but the smartest operators are changing, shifting culturally. These early adopter are poised to enjoy the same agility and deep customer insights that powered the most successful Web, social media and merchandising companies.
Where is all this data coming from?
Every customer action leaves a trail. Networks carry billions of messages every second to query databases, ensure interoperability, measure quality of service, access content, deliver key services, download applications and more. The nuts and bolts of mobile communications – devices, network elements, towers, OSS/BSS solutions, policy management systems, application servers and rich communications services – also contain a dazzling amount of information. Big data techniques for correlating and identifying patterns across these data sets will provide the insight operators need to make smarter decisions, from the control room to the board room.
As with all grand ideas, it can be difficult to determine how to get started. Mobile operators are huge organizations with many people tasked with different marching orders as the company moves towards its strategic goals. How can companies transform the mountain of data floating around their networks into actionable information that can actually help? Here’re a few examples:
Customer experience assurance: Network operations teams are responsible for maintaining 99.999% service availability. Applying predictive assurance algorithms, operators can proactively and automatically scan the entire environment for anomalies that indicate an impending issue. Not only do these operators enjoy the benefits of an “early detection system,” they also receive root cause information. For example, instead of seeing a red light somewhere in the network, an operator would receive a notification saying that the S-CSCF cluster that serves the southeast is trending towards failure. When skilled personnel are able to start from an intelligent, informed position, issues can be resolved much faster.
Optimizing accounts: Ultimately, every subscriber’s experience is impacted by bandwidth availability. Operators need to ensure that high value accounts and corporate customers are getting the service they need while protecting against users that are “unfairly” hogging resources in a way that degrades performance for others. With an in-depth analysis of multiple quality and bandwidth metrics – by customer and by application – operators can carefully balance these two objectives.
Finding profits and building awareness: Providing free Wi-Fi is a great way for operators to advertise, but big data offers a chance to go one step further. Consider the airport hotspot and the delayed flyer that has chosen to pass the time watching a NetFlix movie. With analytics, the operator can identify if this user is a subscriber or not. To generate additional revenue, non-subscribers could receive a message saying, for instance, “For $1.00 this movie can be delivered to you in stunning in HD.”
Alternatively, subscribers could receive a message stating something along the lines of, “As a valued customer, we would like to deliver this movie to you in HD at no extra charge.” An offer like this builds loyalty and reduces churn.
Creating revenue opportunities: Operators can use big data to identify new ways to strategically increase revenue. Consider the set of “bronze plan” subscribers that are using 90% of their data package to stream movies. Based on this knowledge, operators could, for example, develop a service mechanism that would display a “pop up” when one of these customer starts a movie. The pop-up would mention that if the user wanted to pay an additional fee, that movie– or all NetFlix movies – could be displayed in HD.
Driving long-term growth: People who refer to mobile networks as dumb pipes tend to cite erosion of profits due to over-the-top applications. Big data can help operators combat this issue. Armed with a detailed understanding of which applications are most popular, how much bandwidth they consume and the quality of experience provided, operator can begin to control the situation.
Using analytics to predict consumer behavior is the one of the best ways to determine which branded services will provide the greatest value to consumers. This analysis can also reveal how operators can fully monetize the traffic these applications generate. In many cases, the application providers themselves may pay to ensure their valued users receive the speed and quality they need to ensure a great experience.
Extracting the wisdom: Many operators still view big data solutions as ancillary to the core systems they need to operate their businesses. Often, they are cut from the budget before the benefits can be realized. Going forward, these tools will move from being “nice to haves” to becoming essential to an operator’s ability to outpace competitors and find new ways to thrive. Employees will lead with intelligence rather than use data posthumously to justify their decisions. This mindset – big data, accessible by all – opens up an endless set of possibilities as operators strive to maintain and increase revenues in today’s competitive landscape.
To get started, find a partner that can help you understand what you want to achieve. Together, you can then dive into all of your data – examine it, characterize it, correlate it – to determine how to best use it. By leveraging this powerful and strategic asset, operators can drive innovation, stifle churn and preemptively ensure optimal network performance. It will make every employee’s decision more effective – from those as simple as determining which WebRTC vendor’s product will integrate best with the existing infrastructure to more complex questions such as where new pricing structures will yield the highest revenue per cost ratios. The so-called “dumb pipes” offer tremendous wisdom – but only the smartest operators are actively seeking it.
