A recent poll by Comptel Corp. found that operators around the globe have not prepared their OSS for the advent of Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC).
The poll found that while 41 percent of respondents stated their OSS was “somewhat” ready, 39 percent admitted to being completely unprepared for FMC. This was despite the fact that more than half of operators questioned were planning to deploy an FMC strategy in the short term.
When broken down by type of service provider, the poll demonstrated that mobile operators are lagging behind fixed line providers in terms of the readiness of their OSS. Whereas only 29 percent of fixed line providers thought their OSS totally was unready for FMC, a total of 71 percent of mobile operators placed themselves in the same category.
Simo Sääskilahti, senior vice president of Products and Solutions at Comptel, said, “These results are encouraging as they show that operators are keen to enjoy the fruits of FMC as soon as possible. That said, service providers need to ensure they have the correct software platform in place to ensure the transition to FMC is completed as smoothly as possible.”
FMC is the convergence of devices and networks that will allow a voice or data session to be seamlessly carried over a variety of fixed and wireless networks. FMC will allow service providers to offer value-added services across multiple access media.
