LTE to boost subscriber data management market

The global subscriber data management (SDM) market, including SDM software and services for mobile and fixed line networks, reached $570 million in 2011, up 57 per cent from 2010, reports Infonetics Research.

Report forecasts the SDM software and services market to grow to $1.86 billion by 2016, driven increasingly by network modernization initiatives, particularly LTE deployments, which are prompting mobile operator interest in the separation of back-end SDM databases from front-end applications to consolidate subscriber data.

Rapid subscriber growth remains a key driver in the Asia Pacific market (and is starting to play a role in Latin America as well), where mobile operators like Bharti and NTT DoCoMo have used SDM software to help manage subscriber growth, simplify new subscriber provisioning, reduce SIM card fraud, and manage subscribers with multiple SIM cards.

Operators in the EMEA region continue to lead the SDM opportunity, with mobile operators in Western Europe, particularly Vodafone, Orange, and Telecom Italia, among the first to deploy SDM.

SDM investments are increasingly being driven by network modernization initiatives, particularly 4G LTE deployments, in turn driving operator interest in the separation of back-end SDM databases from front-end applications to consolidate subscriber data.