Applications are ascendant, mobile broadband is the future and a plethora of new business models are erupting into the marketplace: in some ways we are seeing what seems like the final frontier for communications. To capitalize on it, carriers must boldly go where no (well, not many) carriers have gone before and gain a laser-like focus on the individual subscriber, rather than just the service bundle. For many this will be anchored by the notion of federated subscriber identities.
The idea, of course, is to put customers in control; to allow them access to whatever piece of content or application they wish, on whatever device, all tied to the right kind of service package offerings, tailored to the billing tier that works for their usage patterns. The subscriber needs to be given choice, in other words. The ability to do this also presents the opportunity for service providers to deepen their value with their customers and third parties in an ever more over-the-top world.
“Leveraging a consolidated view of subscriber profile data with real-time behavior information allows operators to better serve their customers in a number of use cases," said Humera Malik, director of marketing and product management at Redknee Inc. For instance, being able to alert a mobile user that they can save money if they log on to their e-mail from a certain location. Or texting a roaming user that they will be charged a high tariff in the location they’re in. All of that adds value."
Juhani Hintikka, head of OSS/BSS solutions at Nokia Siemens Networks, said the idea of viewing a subscriber’s profile across fixed and mobile devices will be a crucial differential for carriers going forward. This allows users to access their digital content without requiring a sign-in for each device, for instance, eliminating the need for multiple passwords. “The multi-screen strategy is what everyone is talking about," he said. “But being able to do it, taking care of the security and authentication behind the scenes, seamlessly, will increasingly be a customer requirement as third-party applications supplant traditional network services."
Enabling Identity Management
For their part, service providers can retain existing customers in a hypercompetitive environment and grow revenue and margins through the differentiated service a holistic view of the subscriber provides. The vision is a delicious one; however, figuring out how to make the sausage is no run through a meadow. It’s dark, difficult work.
Operators have a lot of data available about their subscribers and their usage and spending patterns. The problem, of course, is that for most operators, the data is kept in a series of silos. Service providers need to streamline their data warehouses to get at the information, for one.
