Estimated reading time - 3 min
By Geert Matthys – Vice President of Broadband Product Management for Technicolor, known as Vantiva
Open software solutions are changing how network service providers (NSPs) deliver value to consumers. Consequently, we are seeing NSPs shift their strategic focus from simply providing cost-efficient data access and connectivity services to the home, to offering new value-added services that mix and match emerging digital capabilities that can be managed by the connected home infrastructure.
As a result, we are seeing a majority of NSPs today deploying a growing number of services over their deployed infrastructures. It is the latest example of new efforts to attract customers and hang on to existing subscribers while generating higher average revenue per user (ARPU).
In response to this trend, NSPs all over the world are exploring non-traditional services – such as managed Wi-Fi, home security and safety services, and elder care services – to see how they can best be deployed in the connected home environment.
To deliver on these opportunities, Technicolor is working with NSPs to abstract the hardware and software layers by deploying open customer premises equipment (CPE) platforms that can deliver a greater variety of services to consumers.
New Open Multi-Function Gateways
Technicolor is reimagining the role of gateways in the connected home environment. In the past, the gateway has been seen as the end of the data pipeline. Today, network service providers interested in extending and expanding their relationships with consumers are leveraging the gateway to enable more than just voice, data and video delivery.
The new intelligence and functionality that emerges from this process of abstraction and integration allows NSPs to better monitor and manage the health of in-home connectivity while generating new streams of revenue. In so doing, NSPs are benefiting from an important consequence: customer satisfaction of their subscribers is rising even as the cost of providing services declines – thanks to reductions in expensive truck rolls and other manual maintenance activities.
Next generation technologies – such as Balena’s open containers – are allowing NSPs to deliver more functionality and enable greater autonomy for a growing variety of applications. The Broadband Forum’s User Services Platform is already in the process of defining a common API between the service for the application in the container and the underlying software system. The integration of these technologies into gateway CPE will enable NSPs to quickly and efficiently deploy services across the installed base.
While implementing value-added services does invite complexity, NSPs that integrate the best mix of services on their gateway CPE will have a competitive advantage over those operators that do not respond to these trends.
Technicolor and its strategic partners are working with NSPs around the world to develop open platform solutions that accelerate the process of defining, designing and deploying multiple new services to connected home subscribers.
