REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:

1. MARKET SHARES, REVENUES, FORECASTS & INSTALLED BASE (Past 4 years)

• Worldwide installed base by country, operator and vendor
• Expenditure forecast by carrier type and region through 2008
• Current revenues and market shares for OSS/BSS software suppliers
system integrators and ASPs

2. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF 146 INTERNATIONAL VENDORS & 200 SUITES

For all 146 software vendors featured, we include:

• Solutions offered
• Individual hardware/software approaches
• Detailed technical specifications of products and their differentiators
• Company profiles

3. 30 SYSTEM INTEGRATORS: ANALYSIS OF THEIR REVENUE AND MARKET SHARES

4. PRICING & PRICING STRUCTURE ALTERNATIVES

This report discusses worldwide trends in:

• Pricing by OSS/BSS Suite
• Budgetary guidelines for annual maintenance, and discounting practices

You will also find specific pricing for selected vendors' products.

5. TRENDS IN SUPPORT SYSTEMS REQUIREMENTS: TECHNOLOGIES, STANDARDS & SOLUTIONS

This part of the report addresses priority concerns of operators suchas:

• Budget justification
• Customer expectation
• Systems interoperability
• Solution packaging for special carrier needs
• Platforms (ex. DCE, CORBA, Java & XML)
• Middleware and "Self service" customer utilities on the Internet
• Compliance issues with OSI, CMIP, TMF & other standards groups
• Examination of TMFs work on NGOSS, including e-TOM, and it's practical uses by vendors and operators

OTHER FEATURES:

• Concentration on companies and products that are platform independent and offer at least 5 of over 100 module functionalities.
• Comprehensive description & assessment of 'best of breed' NGOSS major functions
• Conclusions & recommendations by carrier type
• Recommendations for support system software/hardware vendors

PRELIMINARY TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOLUME 1

Part I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTION

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2. INTRODUCTION TO UPDATE

Part II. SUPPORT SYSTEM FUNCTIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION

Note: Each application described in Part II Chapters 1 – 9, is discussed according to the

following outline. The Description of Functions is always application-specific.

A. Description of Functions

1. Application-Specific – Please refer to individual Application Chapter for details.

B. State of the Art of Implementation

C. Anticipated Evolution

D. Drivers of Architectural and Functional Change

E. Key Players Influencing Change

F. Implementation Considerations by Type of Service Provider

1. Wireline Networks

2. Wireless Networks

3. IP and Other Packet Networks

4. Special Considerations for Residential, Enterprise and Carrier Networks

G. Costs and Benefits

H. Suppliers

1. BILLING

A. Description of Functions

1. CDR Data Gathering

2. MDR Data Gathering

3. IPDR Data Gathering

4. Transaction DR Data Gathering

5. DR Editing (Parse / Validate)

6. DR Format Mediation

7. Real-Time DR Processing

8. Product Catalog

9. Rating / Discounting

10. Multicurrency Support

11. Multiple Tax Levels

12. Bill Pricing

13. Bill Computation

14. Bill Pattern Design and Database

15. Bill Presentment to Printer

16. Bill Presentment to Web

17. Consolidated and Converged Billing

18. Revenue Assurance

19. Account Adjustment

20. Accounts Receivable

21. Payment Processing and Lockbox

22. Collections and Treatment

23. Customer Self-Care, Phone-Based

24. Customer Self-Care, Web-Based

25. Output Mediation

26. Prepaid Subscriber Management

27. Prepaid Account Recharge

2. CUSTOMER CARE

A. Description of Functions

1. Trouble Reporting and Tracking

2. Automated Loop Test

3. Trouble Management and Escalation

4. Customer Self-Care, Phone-Based

5. Customer Self-Care, Web-Based

6. Converged Customer Care Center

7. Billing Dispute Management

8. Customer Online-Identity Management

9. Directory Assistance

3. ORDER ENTRY AND PROVISIONING

A. Description of Functions

1. Customer Risk Assessment

2. Customer Credit Qualification

3. Loop Pre-Qualification and Qualification

4. Customer Self-Provisioning, Web

5. Service Order Entry and Processing

6. Service Personalization

7. Wholesale Order Management

8. Order Decomposition

9. Workflow Management

10. Service Order Status Tracking

11. Service Creation, Traditional

12. Service Creation, Converged

13. Facilities Assignment

14. Service or Number Assignment

15. Service Activation

16. Number Administration

17. Number Pooling Compliance

18. In-Service Plant Inventory Management

19. Graphic Outside Plant Records

20. Network Equipment Inventory Management

21. Customer Equipment Inventory Management

22. Scratchcard Inventory Management

23. Network Connectivity Management (Packet)

24. Network Configuration Data Access

25. Network Configuration Management

26. Customer Premises Equipment Configuration Data Access

27. Customer Premises Equipment Configuration Management

4. NETWORK OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

A. Description of Functions

1. Fault Detection and Notification

2. Fault Isolation

3. Network Trouble Ticketing and Tracking

4. Fault Correction (Automatic)

5. Root Cause Analysis

6. Network Surveillance

7. Network Autodiscovery

8. Topology Mapping of Network Elements

9. Network Inventory Management

10. Network Asset Accounting Management

11. Network Event Handling

12. Network Performance Data Collection

13. Network Performance Analysis and Tuning

14. Network Configuration Management

15. Policy-Based Management

16. QoS Monitoring

17. Network Security — Authentication and Authorization

18. Network Security — Accounting

19. Network Service Modeling

20. Network Engineering and Design

5. SERVICE MANAGEMENT AND ASSURANCE

A. Description of Functions

1. Service Activation and Reporting

2. SLA Management (By Operator)

3. SLA Enforcement

4. QoS / SLA Data Access by Customer

5. End-to-End Service Monitoring

6. WORK FORCE MANAGEMENT

A. Description of Functions

1. Work Order Issuance and Tracking

2. Craft Scheduling and Dispatch

3. GPS Location and Tracking of Vehicles

4. Remote Craft Access Support

5. Operator Scheduling

6. CSR Permissioning Centrally

7. Overall Force Management

7. MEDIATION

A. Types of Mediation Solutions and Description of Functions

1. Collecting, Editing, Validating, Formatting, Time Stamping

2. Filtering, Correlating, Aggregating

3. Storing (Archiving)

4. Call Records

5. Network Element Outputs

6. Bill Formats

8. ANTIFRAUD AND SECURITY

A. Description of Functions

1. Intra-carrier Suspect Identity Database

2. Intra-carrier Suspect Account Events Database

3. Inter-carrier Fraud and Bad Debt Database

4. Application Information Verification

5. Application Identity Fraud Scoring Analytics

6. Online-Identity Verification (For E-Com)

7. Online-Fraud Scoring Analytics

8. Non-Real-Time Usage Analysis

9. Real-Time Usage Analysis

10. Predictive Usage Analysis

11. PIN and Password Processing

12. User Authentication

13. Service Authorization

14. Encryption — Non-IP

15. Encryption — IP

16. CALEA Support

9. MARKETING AND SALES SUPPORT

A. Description of Functions

1. Prospect Identification

2. Jeopardy Customer Identification

3. Online Product Catalog

4. Online Pricing Support

5. Cross-Sell and Up-Sell Support

6. SLA Negotiation Support

7. Sales Call Routing and Scheduling

8. Sales Account Management

9. Channel Management Support

10. OTHER FUNCTIONALITY

A. Interface to Data Warehouse

B. Data Mining

C. Web-Based Interface

D. Graphical User Interface

E. Computer-Telephony Integration (Screen Popup)

F. Information Access Level Control

G. Multilingual (Languages)

H. Availability as an Outsourced Service

I. Flexible Reporting Formats (Standard, Customizable, Textual, Graphic)

Part III. TRENDS IN SUPPORT SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

1. WHY WE NEED A COMPREHENSIVE NEW ENVIRONMENT FOR FUTURE SUPPORT SYSTEMS

A. Broadband, IP and Mobility as Essential in the Network

B. Unbundling, Virtual Networks, Industry Consolidation, Speed to Market and Service Differentiation Driving Demand for Maximum Flexibility

C. Personalization and Ubiquity as Service Requirements

D. Increasing Support System Complexity and Interdependency – OSS, BSS, MSS

2. NEXT GENERATION NETWORK REQUIREMENTS

A. Next Generation Network Technology Demands

B. Service Demands on Next Generation Networks

C. Next Generation Operator Demands

D. Next Generation Customer Expectations

E. Pulling it All Together – Next Generation Operations

3. NEXT GENERATION SUPPORT SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY

A. System Modularity

B. System Interoperabil