Ascom Mobile Network Benchmarking – Outsourcing Comes Full Circle
07 January 2004 09:25
Equipment manufacturers return to centre stage, as build-up to launch of 3G services highlights growing need for comprehensive and independent benchmarking data.
Switzerland - January 2004 – As network operators and telecom regulators prepare for the launch of ‘third generation’ (3G) mobile services, many are still struggling to obtain comprehensive and meaningful quality data about their existing networks.
For several years now, there has been a growing trend for network benchmarking services to be outsourced. The reason is clear – quite apart from the desire to cut costs and ensure objectivity, many internal experts suffer from an unintentional ‘built-in’ bias, due to the fact that they only really know and understand their own networks.
However, many independent providers of benchmarking services also lack the accumulated knowledge and expertise required to perform comprehensive, statistically valid network monitoring and evaluation. So who does have what it takes?
Increasingly, both network operators and regulators are realising that the only people with the necessary in-depth knowledge are the companies who build, service and monitor the networks. While asking network architects to evaluate their own creations is not a sensible strategy, the alternative is to turn to the – independent – suppliers and operators of the complex hi-tech equipment actually used for benchmarking.
Nobody has as much accumulated technical knowledge and practical experience in the field as Ascom Carrier Products – the company behind the market-leading QVoice mobile network monitoring and optimisation system. While Ascom Carrier Products is best known for the quality of its equipment, many customers are also learning to appreciate its unique combination of technical know-how and hands-on experience.
For more than a decade, Ascom Carrier Products has not only been performing its own drive services across a range of networks and technologies, but has worked on a regular basis with numerous large and small customers, helping them to optimise both the collection and evaluation of network QoS data.
While strict confidentiality clauses mean that Ascom cannot publicly list the rapidly-growing number of individual services operators and regulators now commissioning its benchmarking services, the trend is an open secret within industry circles. Indeed, it is rapidly developing into a major business segment in its own right – many such contracts are signed on a renewable basis, with provisions for ‘repeat’ services over as much as a five-year period. (Contracts also tend to be pan-European, rather than country-specific).
One reason why Ascom Carrier Products is proving so successful in the benchmarking business is simple: it is the fastest and the best when it comes to project implementation.
Specific technical requirements aside, benchmarking is a complex logistical business, requiring for instance the rapid collection of the SIM cards of all operators using a given network. Such complications notwithstanding, Carrier Products is generally ‘on the road’ within two to three weeks of receiving a final order – a time-frame that no rival provider can currently match, given the same measurable quality milestones.
As in so many areas, the marketplace is proving in practice what the textbooks predict in theory – that real competitive advantage is based on the possession of a truly distinctive core competence, combined with the practical ability to bring that competence to market.
About Ascom Carrier Products
Ascom Carrier Products continues its growth as a leading European supplier to the Telecom Industry - its modern solutions directly addressing some of the major concerns of today’s network operators and service providers. The company develops, manufactures and markets worldwide advanced systems in the technical area of Quality Testing & Assurance in mobile network communications. The Business Unit Carrier Products is fully ISO 9000:2000 certified.
Its flagship product is QVoice – a sophisticated tool for testing mobile network quality and performance; the company also offers and automated mass measurement system for the verification of IP-based services.
In its quest for excellence, Carrier Products primary focus is on helping the Telecom Industry improve the efficiency of their market services, resulting in measurable benefits such as increased operational productivity and profitability.
For more information on this company:
Ascom Mobile Test Solutions - Mobile Test Solutions - Leading in Mobile Network Testing
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