report - Light Reading

ENABLING MVNOs AT BELL MOBILITY WITH ALCATEL’S PAYMENT SOLUTION
and includes functions such as voucher management, customer
service agent Web interfaces, and recurring charges across multiple
services. These services benefit from the redundancy, scalability,
and management features of Alcatel’s underlying Open
Service Platform. After integrating 13 different external systems,
the Alcatel payment solution at Bell Mobility today supports
five MVNOs and service bureaus, and over 1.3 million subscribers.
The Alcatel / Bell Mobility team
Alcatel and Bell Mobility formed a geographically diverse
team, which enabled some of Alcatel’s best pre-paid developers
to be assigned to the project. The core team was spread
between Mississauga, Canada; Plano, USA; and Namur, Belgium.
The appropriate resources were brought to Canada during the
project for the definition of requirements, initial system trial,
joint lab testing, and on-site support for migrations. Depending
on the expertise required, 13 different people spent a total
of 30 weeks on site at Bell Mobility.
Key to the success of the project was open, honest communication
in both directions, with the entire team striving
towards a common goal. Vijay Singh, Assistant Vice-President,
Canadian Sales at Alcatel, describes the relationship:
“Alcatel and Bell have created a solid working relationship for the
delivery and implementation of the pre-paid platform. Both technical
teams worked collaboratively to ensure the success of the project.
The success was best summarized by a senior executive of Bell
Canada. At a Bell Canada town hall meeting, the executive asked
his technical team how the project was progressing and when they
would be going live. The response from the team was that they
had already gone live and had over 500,000 subscribers on the
platform at the time. This is truly a testament to the working relationship
between Bell and Alcatel, as the implementation and
cutover were almost flawless.”
More than 75 people at Bell were interviewed over the summer
of 2005 as part of Alcatel’s customer satisfaction survey.
The survey, which covered all products currently sold by
Alcatel to Bell, highlighted that the relationships between the
Bell Mobility and Alcatel teams were a key strength of this
project. Alcatel and Bell continue to work together, defining
ongoing changes and enhancements to the service, looking for
further opportunities to leverage the existing investment and
plan for the future.
Figure 1: MVNO Architecture using Alcatel Payment Solution.
MVNE
Network
Billing
Back
Office
Content
MNO MVNE MVNO
The MVNO Model
Types of MVNO
There are many terms used to describe the various relationships
between network operators and third parties that
want to address the mobile market: service bureaus, white
labeling, Mobile Virtual Network Operators, and partners (see
Figure 1).
A Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) is a company
that does not own a licensed frequency spectrum, but resells
wireless services under its own brand name, using the network
of another mobile network operator. The services offered to an
MVNO can range from ‘access only’, where the MVNO provides
everything except radio access; to a ‘white label’, where the
MVNO arranges branding and distribution, but outsources
everything else to the mobile network operator.
There are also Service Bureau arrangements. In this
case, a mobile network operator owns its radio access network,
but contracts with another company, which may also
be a mobile network operator, to provide certain services such
as billing. The operators in this case are more likely to refer
to each other as partners.
If a MVNO wishes to work in an ‘access-only’ model with
a mobile network operator, it may engage a Mobile Virtual Network
Enabler (MVNE). The MVNE would provide the Operations
Support Systems and Business Support Systems
required by the MVNO. In this case, the MVNE acts as a service
bureau, and the MVNO can work according to a white label
model.
Perspectives on the MVNO market
Mobile Virtual Network Operators are currently the fastest
growing segment of the mobile market. While nearly all
MVNOs today offer only pre-paid service, MVNOs are now
starting to explore post-paid user offerings. To be successful,
an MVNO needs to have a customer base loyal to its brand,
and should achieve 100,000 users after two years of service.
To achieve this goal, MVNOs want to collaborate with mobile
network operators whose networks are stable and provide outstanding
coverage.
Several key issues face those who want to enter the MVNO
market. Many MVNOs enter the new wireless market, bringing
their brand, but greatly underestimating the effort required,
especially to create handset specifications and complete systems
integration. Secondly, while there may be little infrastructure
required up-front for the MVNO, there are significant capital
expenditure costs. These costs are generally not well understood
by companies that are not involved in the mobile space.
The third key issue is ensuring that there is a sound marketing
strategy for pursuing the wireless
market. Most MVNOs are not in the
wireless business, and need to shift
their thinking to understand a new
approach to customers.
MVNOs will strive for success since
their brand loyalty can reach a lucrative
wireless market, and failure will
Marketing Branding adversely affect their primary line of
business. Choosing the correct mobile
network operator is key.
Almis Ledas, VP Corporate Development,
Bell Mobility, describes Bell’s
approach to the MVNO market.
www.alcatel.com/atr 4 th Quarter 2005 - Alcatel Telecommunications Review - 267