Direct telecom network operations costs worldwide average 1.22 times more than carriers' capital equipment costs, and operators report that between 25% and 45% of these costs are related to dealing with errors made by operations personnel while performing configuration management, problem resolution, upgrades and additions to infrastructure, and other routine network operations tasks.
As the infrastructure that can deal with the new pace of opportunity becomes more complex, these cost points can only rise. The new complexity demands a skill set that blends information systems technology and network technology with some hard experience and applies both to NGN problems. Those skills are in short supply.
Telecom operators are encountering new network integration and operations challenges in their next-generation services evolution. The statistics show how carriers are trying to improve network operations planning and management.
Network integration risks
In the 1990s, only about 18% of telecom network infrastructure changes were coordinated by contractors that won outsourced contracts to manage carrier network integration projects. By 2008 integration outsourcing had grown to 63%.
What caused the increase? Operators have found that relying on standards development isn't sufficient in the complex and fast-paced world of next-generation network (NGN) deployment, even though it is the traditional way to insure interoperability among network components. By 2005, the pace of service opportunities had exceeded the pace of standardization, which further complicated the issue. For example, a standards-setting process started in 2006 to integrate IT technology at the service layer with traditional network technology. The standards aren't yet complete.
In addition, there are explosions in the cost of integrating the components of NGN infrastructure, in the cost of NGN operations, and in operations errors that are not only individually unacceptable, but collectively are a disastrous risk.
To reduce the risk of integration and operations disasters, operators are breaking with the tradition of waiting for standards completion taking steps that include the following:
Increasing the number of network integration contracts awarded in connection with major NGN deployments to make a single party accountable and responsible for the integration of the wide range of network technologies.
Dividing networks into technology procurement zones and selecting a small number of vendors within each zone, and naming the winners responsible not only for providing infrastructure components but for accepting and managing an integration contract within the zone. Vendors can partner with smaller players to achieve full technology solutions within a zone, which encourages vendors.
Requiring procurement zone winners to establish a network operations process for the life of the technology and update any existing processes as needed.
Outsourcing ongoing operations management to a suitable vendor where the pace of technology change, opportunity change, or both suggests that sustaining operations using service provider personnel will be problematic.
The notion of a global network operator outsourcing network operations to a third party seems radical, but it is a logical step from the network and technology integration contracts that have already become the rule in NGN deployment. The traditional problems in acquiring and retaining skilled personnel are exacerbated for next-generation network operations by the multiplicity of skills required. Furthermore, some tasks associated with NGN operations are so specialized that a given operator may not be able to justify full-time staff to perform them.