There's no doubt about it. Telecommunications deregulation and the increasing demand for new and better services are creating unprecedented opportunities for operational support systems (OSS) providers at home and overseas.

The principle blueprint for the industry's global deregulation process comes from the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Basic Telecommunication Services. Signed by 70 countries — and accounting for more than 90% of the worlds estimated $750 billion (US dollars) annual telecommunications revenues — the agreement took effect on February 5, 1998.

Although terms vary from country to country, the goal is a completely open telecommunications services market. Specific measures include guidelines for non-discriminatory access to incumbent networks using standardized, open interfaces and transparent spectrum licensing for both public and private services. Spectrum channelization must be flexible enough to accommodate a variety of technologies.

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More than 300 million customers
worldwide would like telephone
services they do not yet have

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These developments should hardly be surprising. Not so long ago, new technologies arose in the marketplace every 10 or 15 years. Now, changes pop up every 10 or 15 months and the ever-expanding choice of technologies is making today's telecommunications industry increasingly difficult — if not impossible — to regulate.

Market Moves

Faced with this diversity of options, regulators everywhere are loosening the reins to allow the natural forces of competition to bring innovation, strength and vigor to their national telecommunications marketplaces.

The potential economic benefits of open and competitive telecommunications markets are overwhelming, and support for the WTO agreement by business leaders around the world is very strong.

In a recent survey for the 1998/99 BT World Communications Report, over 90% of world business leaders agreed that all countries have the right to an open telecommunications market:

• 84% agreed that competitive telecommunications providers would benefit the global economy;
• 84% said competitive telecommunications providers would benefit their own business;
• 61% thought competition would improve inward investment in their country.

In the same survey, the chief barriers to competition were perceived to be the dominance of a monopoly, over-regulation, poor telecommunications infrastructure and continued links between government and the monopolist.

But these barriers cannot last. With government and business both on board, increased competitive freedom is a given. And top-tier service providers are rapidly merging, and seeking professional alliance to access new technologies, raise expansion capital and extend their sphere of influence in developing markets worldwide.

Although global telecommunications giants are leading the charge, they are not the only players that stand to benefit. Deregulation is opening the door for alternate service providers of all kinds, most of them dependent on the advantages of speed and service quality that only cutting-edge OSS can provide.

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Half of the world's
population has yet to
make a telephone call ...

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In a competitive market where customer retention is critical to the success of new entrants, OSS suppliers that manage customers better and troubleshoot networks faster than their competition will win and keep market share.

Customers Everywhere

In a world in which half the population has yet to make a telephone call, countless opportunities exist for all kinds of players to help satisfy customer demands.

According to a recent International Technology Consultants (ITC) report on the wireless industry, more than 300 million customers worldwide are both willing and able to pay for telephone service they do not yet have.

This figure does not include the additional hundreds of millions, if not billions, of customers in developing regions who will be demanding services — voice, data, Internet, E-commerce, multimedia — over the next decade as their disposable incomes increase and national infrastructures develop. Take China, for example. More than one billion people live in mainland China, but fewer than 5% of Chinese households have telephones. In Africa, the penetration of telephone lines is fewer than two for every one hundred people. In Latin America, although major telecommunications markets have been growing at more than 12% annually over the last 6 years, the penetration rate of service is still well below 20%.

So maybe it's time to update your passport and dust off those old travel brochures. Deregulation is a reality. Customers are waiting, and all of these regions, whether they are eventually served by traditional wireline, cellular or any one of a dozen other competing technologies, will soon be offering extensive new opportunities for OSS suppliers of every kind.

From Current OSS, Fall 1999, Vol. 1, No. 1. Published by Eftia OSS Solutions.