Expect Amdocs’ acquisition of Bridgewater Systems to change policy management for years to come.
That’s the finding of market-research firm Infonetics, which just released excerpts from its latest report on policy management market size, market share and forecast.
"The acquisition of Bridgewater Systems by Amdocs marks a shift in the policy management market by creating an integrated policy/charging solution backed by a large, well-established vendor with a strong sales force," said Shira Levine, directing analyst for next gen OSS and policy at Infonetics Research. “Going forward, solutions that integrate policy management with charging and some degree of subscriber awareness will become table stakes, as operators move beyond basic bandwidth management into value-added services and innovative pricing models. Suppliers without that capability will be at a significant disadvantage."
The report further says that the policy management market is heating up because a growing number of operators are deploying policy solutions to address near-term concerns like network congestion, and to deliver value-added services. They’re also using the solutions to comply with regulatory requirements. Poilcy management is playing a big role in LTE trials and deployments.
Infonetics expects the global policy management software market to jump 49 percent in 2011 over 2010; look for it to hit $1.61 billion in 2015. Global revenue, Infonetics says, will nearly triple between 2011 and 2015.
Operators in emerging markets in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and parts of Asia are some of the more innovative users of policy control capabilities, the report says. For example, some are using policy management to create unique loyalty programs to combat high subscriber churn rates and increase ARPU.
Amdocs expects the Bridgewater acquisition, which wrapped in August, will further expand its CES portfolio, allowing service providers to implement new value-based data monetization strategies to capitalize on the data explosion.
