Editor’s Note: With 2013 now upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from leading industry analysts and executives on what they expect to see in the new year.
1. Fixed-mobile divergence is here to stay: Fixed-mobile convergence, a previously popular trend towards seamless connectivity between fixed and wireless telecommunications networks, will come to an end. Consumers and enterprises have started to display completely disparate behaviors, needs and payment patterns when compared to what can be offered over fixed and mobile access. There is only one solution to this demand, and that is to give all consumers and enterprises access to fiber or vectoring. LTE and obsolete technologies will not cut it.
2. Sharing of networks: In order to meet the future demands of consumers and enterprises efficiently, service providers will start to more readily share the same networks, either because of the capital needed to invest in the equipment or because it suits local competition conditions and regulations.
3. Focus on advanced operations support systems (OSS): It is not enough to lay fibre alone or upgrade to vectoring – an environment is also required in which multiple service providers can thrive and reach the customers simply and easily. Advanced operations support systems are needed to provide support for automated service fulfilment and service assurance not only within an operator but more importantly between operators.
These three fundamentals are the key for understanding the success of true broadband services today and in the future.
