Integration between policy management and charging systems is both a vital requirement and a potential obstacle to new personalized service plans. The majority of tier one mobile operators plan to integrate policy servers with separate charging systems rather than deploy pre-integrated policy and charging systems from a single vendor. Join Tekelec for a webinar on Tuesday, February 7, at 11:00 EST to learn more about the options for policy and charging integration, and why independent solutions are service providers' preference. Heavy Reading's Graham Finnie and Tekelec's Joanne Steinberg will examine the survey results and discuss the importance working with a policy vendor that has integrated its policy server with charging systems across multiple tier one operators Sign up here.
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Tekelec published research from industry analyst firm Heavy Reading showing that the majority of tier one mobile operators plan to integrate policy servers with existing charging and billing systems rather than deploy pre-integrated policy and charging systems from a single vendor. The full release is here. Some key findings include: - Nearly 70 percent of tier ones said they will use the policy server (a policy and charging rules function, or PCRF) to perform some charging or rating functions. - Tier one operators have run into significant challenges implementing online charging for data. For example, almost 60 percent cited higher costs due to customization and professional services. What do you think of these findings?
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CTO Doug Suriano discusses how mobile data will spur innovations in 2012 - especially in terms of pricing models - in an article for RCR Wireless. He predicts that this year will see advancements in personalized plans and cloud services, as well as a major rise in signaling traffic. According to Suriano:

As mobile data matures in developed markets, we expect several significant evolutions in 2012. The biggest for subscribers will be pricing plan innovations, providing new personalized service and cost options. In addition, we forecast rapid cloud service adoption, new content business models and new device segmentation.

The full article can be found here.
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Tekelec was recently named the top policy management vendor by Infonetics Research’s annual global service provider survey for the third consecutive year.  Tekelec leads the list of companies named as a top policy vendor with 50 percent more respondents than the second-place company. As many operators already know, policy management is fast becoming mission critical as service providers try to cope with the broadband data boom.  Most early policy deployments have focused on one or two use cases such congestion control or fair-use management, but that’s all about to change. As traffic levels swell and competition heats up, operators are looking at a broader and more complex set of use cases. Creating a more sophisticated  policy environment means more triggers and more frequent policy adaptations. So, it’s not surprising that operators looking for easy-to-use policy creation environment that makes it as simple as possible to create and deploy policies themselves. Tekelec’s policy server/PCRF is designed to help providers shape policies quickly to respond to changing network conditions and subscriber behavior.  With the system’s simple GUI, service-provider personnel, even non-specialists, can intuitively build complex policy rules. The GUI is based on a "wizard" interface, which contains a large number of triggers, conditions and actions. Using interactive pull-down menus, users can populate the network with any number of "if/then" cases. If needed, rules can be modified later, according to variables defined by the service provider, ­without the user having to know a specific language syntax. And, because Tekelec’s policy management system has been
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Guest post by Shira Levine, Directing Analyst, Next Gen OSS and Policy, at Infonetics Research As we approach the end of 2011 and I try to summarize the top trends of the year, three words keep flashing into my consciousness from countless PowerPoint presentations, trade show signs, and conference agendas: customer experience management. Suddenly, the customer is a hot topic, and how to manage him has been fodder for endless conversations of the last year—and, dare I say, a certain amount of hype. What exactly is customer experience management (CEM)? It depends on who you’re talking to; there’s no standardized definition put out by the 3GPP or the TM Forum. A network management or test vendor would probably discuss CEM in terms of service management, while a CRM or billing vendor would frame it in the context of customer care. Nor do operators seem to have a universal sense of what CEM means, with varying views based on factors such as the competitive environment and regulatory requirements, and even variation between the departments of a single operator. My personal opinion is that CEM is all about understanding how the subscriber wants to interact with his/her CSP, and acting accordingly. That could mean an acknowledgment and an apology after a certain number of dropped calls, and possibly even a credit. It could mean personalized advertising and promotions based on past usage. Or perhaps it could mean interacting with the operator via a social networking site such as Twitter or Facebook, or through more
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Guest Post By Richard Webb , Directing Analyst, Mobile Devices, at Infonetics Research As the analyst responsible for tracking the mobile broadband devices market at Infonetics Research, I have been asked to participate as a judge for the smartphones category at the Mobile World Congress industry awards taking place in February 2012. As I considered where to place my vote, I had to consider each phone’s functionality, aesthetic appeal, performance, value-for-money, and other criteria. This became increasingly tricky, because not all smartphones are trying to appeal in the same way to the same user. This sounds obvious, but of late, differentiation in this segment has become much more marked due to the market entrance of a new breed of smartphone. A Segment Emerges: The Low-End Smartphone Previously, all the focus of innovation in the smartphone market had been at the top end: making smartphones even smarter, faster, flashier . . . and more expensive. Functionality comes at a price and the drive from vendors had been to exceed the capabilities of its competitors, confident in the belief that early-adopters would not be able to resist. But this focus has changed. Not completely, because of course there is still much attention being paid to making smartphones better than ever: the dream of the ‘ultra-smartphone’ (whatever exactly that might mean) still spurs vendors on to new heights. But there is now a discernible counterpoint to the likes of the iPhone and the Galaxy: the ‘low-end’ smartphone. With the emergence of smartphones such as the Huawei Blaze, Motorola Defy and
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The ultimate reference guide for telecom professionals in next-gen Diameter signaling is now available on your iPhone with Tekelec’s exclusive LTE/EPC Diameter protocol reference guide. You can learn about relevant LTE/EPC Diameter procedures, browse AVP information and view detailed Diameter interface description all from one App. To download, click here.
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The phenomenal success of the iPhone quickly introduced the mobile industry to a new problem: Smartphones generate a significantly higher volume of signaling traffic, which adds to network congestion and connectivity issues. The industry is working hard on multiple ways of addressing the signaling issue, including changes in smartphones themselves. Join Tekelec for a webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 9. This webinar will explain what challenges remain and what service providers need to be doing about them. Click here to register.
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