Around the World…

B/OSS | Tara Seals’ Blog…
Savoring That World Cup Draw with England
Editor Tara Seals blogs on innovative ideas for telecom and ruminates on why the industry has not gotten there yet. She identifies customer-centricity (a common theme at recent Billing and OSS World Conference) as one of the main reasons. She states that, although carriers and vendors are moving away from a service-focused model, there is room for improvement. Tara shares with us a personal experience with ordering a service and how she became annoyed in the process. Tara isn’t the only one affected by customer service—friend of Comptel and Telesperience analyst Teresa Cottam also recently blogged about similar experiences in “#IVRhell and #churnfury”. Maintaining quality of service and quality of experience is important for service providers and needs to be a priority to advance this competitive market.

TelecoNews.com…
Will Carriers Be Big Players in the Internet of Things?
David Goldstein blogs on a recent GigaOM article and In-Stat report that looks at mobile devices using integrated wireless broadband, and whether the shift to 4G will free up 3G capacity for new mobile gizmos, which have been coined “connected devices” (e.g. e-readers, tablets, Blu-ray players, etc.). In-Stat estimates an 11 percent cumulative annual growth rate in the number of devices that require wireless services; however, carrier networks are already struggling to keep up with demand from existing devices. Policy control can help operators ensure that each user has enough bandwidth and that others are not “squeezed” from the network; this is particularity useful for driving continued uptake of wireless broadband and “connected devices” in the future.

TM Forum Community Blog…
LTE: More Restrained This Year, But Equally Impressive
Martin Creaner of TM Forum blogs on the outlook of LTE and the foundations to support the technology. According to the GSMA, there are currently 88 operators (in 42 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia) that have deployed or are trialing LTE. And, what’s even more encouraging is that these numbers are expected to grow. The Forum’s current initiatives are developing core management interfaces for these technologies and working with other industry bodies, such as 3GPP and NGMN, to ensure that the whole industry adopts a consistent approach.