Explosive traffic growth is stressing service provider’s business cases. New services including video streaming, cloud services and mobile broadband are driving network traffic demand at annual rates of 35% to 85%. At the same time service providers’ business models are changing so that there is no longer a simple linkage between traffic growth and revenue growth. This puts tremendous pressure on service providers’ cost structures, service portfolios, and pricing policies. Service providers are looking to their systems vendors for solutions that are supported by rigorous business case analysis to help them control costs and develop differentiated and profitable new services. When selecting a systems vendor, service providers look beyond simple product by product price/performance analyses to business case analyses that extend across the market ecosystem. 

 

Business cases can include capex and opex comparisons, service pricing, incremental revenue and churn analysis. Increasingly, service providers are engaging with systems vendors to provide turnkey solutions that include network design, construction and operation as well as sourcing of content and business planning services. Use cases, total cost of ownership, and financial modeling support are integral to such comprehensive vendor offerings.