The topics discussed during the four days vary from wearable devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) right through to the latest advances in phone covers.
With the event run on such a large scale and covering such a broad range of topics, it can be difficult to hear and find out what is really relevant within your space. So, with that in mind – What are the key takeaways so far from an OSS/BSS perspective?
1. NFV – One of the hot topics this year is without doubt NFV, with multiple vendors discussing how they plan to bring this to market. Interestingly though is Openet’s part in a multi-vendor offering that showcases an ETSI NFV proof of concept demonstration of real-time OSS/BSS running on a virtualized environment. It will show how NFV concepts can be applied to OSS/BSS to deliver on the business benefits and improved customer experience that NFV promises. There has been huge interest in the demo during the two days so far, further showing how timely this piece is.
2. Internet of Things – There is a huge focus this year on IoT. There are numerous companies showcasing/discussing wearable devices, connected cars, m-health and much more. There is an obvious focus on this from the subscriber side and the benefits and functionality it can achieve. However, what are the implications from a technical point of view for these services? Openet have been showcasing their Openet healthcare solution which is a solution for mobile operators that allows them to enter the m-health market rapidly. Openet is aggregating, correlating and enriching the numerous data sources for the operator, such as Fitbits, glucometers, ECGs and making this data actionable for them.
3 Subscriber Experience – A running theme over the few days so far has been the importance of the subscriber experience. The launch of so many new devices and services obviously has a direct impact on the need for a great subscriber experience. Openet has been running a demo of our Real-Time Offer Manager solution during the event. This demo showcases our ability to help operators react in real-time to their subscriber’s behaviour on the network. Operators can provision and launch personalized offers based on a subscriber’s context, such as location, profile, application access etc., in real-time. The benefit this has for the operator is obvious but there are also huge benefits for the subscriber themselves with more personalized and relevant offers leading to an increased overall subscriber experience.
Mobile World Congress is a marathon event and if you can cut through all the craziness you should be able to come away with a decent idea of what is currently important within your space, whether that is connected toothbrushes or the latest network infrastructure updates. If you manage to last the pace, survive the blisters and make it home in one piece then remember – Enjoy that time as MWC 2016 is never far away.
