Friday, March 19, 2010
Looking to the Future and Living in the Present
CTIA kicks off on Monday in Las Vegas. Judging by the news reports this week, looks like we’re in for a lot of announcements related to handsets – e.g. smartphones – and 4G technology. As the industry races toward 4G (and whatever lies beyond) the reality is that for the foreseeable future we’re going to see 4G, 3G and 2G all co-existing within the same ecosystem. The disparity in the sophistication of network infrastructure around the world is simply that great.
There’s no question that the prospect of having three generations of network technology operating at the same time is going to create headaches for carriers and operators alike, but perhaps the biggest impact will be felt by the equipment manufacturers. Accurately planning and provisioning network assets is difficult enough but when you add multi-vendor service contacts into the mix the pressure to maintain QoS rises exponentially.
The explosive growth we’re seeing in developing markets represents a tremendous opportunity for equipment manufacturers to drive revenue growth. But making the most of those new opportunities – and scaling for the future – requires implementing a more proactive approach to managing product data and physical network assets today.
