OSS/BSS : Next Gen Leap

The Indian OSS/BSS market has been growing quite bullish at a CAGR of 10-12%
in comparison to the global CAGR of 6-7% over the past five years. The market,
which is price sensitive and fragmented with a mix of global players and local
product/SI vendors, has been very promising.

According to Next Generation Network OSS/BSS Market and Forecast 2008-13,
Revenue Assurance, Billing and Customer Care and Mediation will record almost
equal growth in terms of revenues in traditional BSS functions. Revenues of
Billing and Customer Care will be almost flat while Revenue Assurance will
emerge as the fastest growing BSS function. Interestingly, APAC will top the
growth in terms of revenues and percentage share among geographic regions.

In the Ring

In 2008—09, Elitecore Technologies bagged some big projects, some of which
are WiMax 16e projects, VoIP projects, data and prepaid projects. Elitecore also
reinforced its presence in the European region with three new victories.

Early in the year 2008, Elitecore Technologies received a contract from Aksh
Optifibre for the latter's services in a tie-up with BSNL, currently availabe in
twenty cities. It is the second time that the company has been selected for such
a project.

Also, in February 2008, Idea Cellular and its strategic outsourcing partner
implemented Oracle Siebel CRM applications to deliver customer care to pre and
post-paid mobile subscribers across their entire operations in India.

Reliance Communications upgraded its current Intec Convergent Billing (Singl.eView)
installation to the latest version (6.0) and signed contracts for the BSS/OSS
software vendor's Content Partner Management solution. These additional
capabilities are the key enablers for the delivery of complex, content oriented
next generation services.

With this deployment, the operator is hopeful of enhacing its competitiveness
in the telecommunications market, to bill and manage partner relationships more
efficiently, and launch new next generation content services like DTH, IPTV and
other value-added services.

Aircel has selected Intec to supply and implement its fully convergent
service mediation solution. Aircel will deploy Intec's Total Service Mediation
platform to support its pan-Indian expansion and business transformation
strategy.

Aircel has implemented multiple Oracle applications-including components of
Oracle Communications Service Fulfillment Suite, Siebel CRM, Oracle Fusion
Middleware, Oracle Database and Oracle Real Application Clusters-to help drive
its aggressive growth plans. For Aircel, 2009-10 is a crucial period as it has
plans to venture into new markets during this time.

In November, 2008, Wipro Infotech, India and Middle East IT business of Wipro,
chose Subex's platform in the twenty-three circles of Aircel across India, under
the nine-year contract to implement and manage Revenue Assurance and Fraud.

Xalted delivered Fraud Trace, a fraud management solution for BSNL. This
strategy deployment initiative for BSNL, covers its GSM network, which includes
CellOne subscribers to detect real and non-real time fraud across India.

Sterlite is currently in the process of fulfilling a third contract which it
recently received from MTNL. This deal is for the installation of an OSS/BSS for
the Metro Ethernet network. Sterlite is currently installing this for 2,00,000
broadband subscribers in Mumbai, India. The project was due for completion in
the FY 2008-09.

SunTec partnered with Axis Bank to consolidate the bank's disparate billing
silos, and centralize and streamline the pricing and billing processes.The
solution will further help Axis Bank create personalized product packages or
bundles and manage fee billing for payment and cash management, while having a
unified view of its customers.

EservGlobal, a provider of end-to-end solutions, enabling smart communication
and payment services for service providers on any generation network, expanded
its convergent billing solution offering by signing a partnership agreement with
SunTec.

Outlook

In 2009, uncertainty due to the global economic dip will bother the telecom
sector as well. The operators must optimize their OSS and BSS platforms to get
the highest RoI. The Indian OSS/BSS market is expected to witness unprecedented
growth over the next three years through innovative offerings and convergent
solutions. As new tier-2 and tier-3 operators enter the fray, the focus will be
on managed services and single package solutions delivering complete service
delivery, billing, subscriber, and service management platforms. Industry
pundits expect that 1% of the total telecom revenue will come from OSS/BSS and
fraud management in the coming years. According to Xalted, in India this revenue
is estimated at around 4.8 bn by 2010.

Heena Jhingan

heenaj@cybermedia.co.in