Telco BSS Platform Strategy-Unleashing the sleeping giant

Tracing the evolution of mobility from 1G, which enabled mobile voice calls, to 2G, which introduced data transmission on circuit-switched networks, and to the vast speed and capacity gains of 4G, radio enhancements have historically focused on person-to-person communication. Enter 5G: with promises of ultra-high speed, massive capacity, ultra-reliable low latency, and unprecedented machine-to-machine communication. This ground-up design caters not only to human interaction but also to the expansive Internet of Things (IoT), marking a shift from simple evolution to true disruption of communication technologies. Coupled with AI, machine learning, big data, and blockchain, 5G has the potential to revolutionize every industry, embedding communication as a default feature across applications. Telecommunications today transcends traditional industry boundaries, spanning sectors such as telemedicine, remote education, digital health, and telebanking, transforming telecom into a foundational ecosystem rather than a standalone industry.

However, as telcos dive into the possibilities of these technologies, the surrounding business support systems (BSS) and operational support systems (OSS) need to keep up. The traditional BSS, often slow to evolve, risks becoming the bottleneck in this transformation. Today’s telcos require BSS capable of delivering a seamless, agile experience that adapts quickly to new products and services, handling dynamic pricing and customer experience with precision. This creates an urgent need for a multisided platform approach to BSS that supports various partner ecosystems, enabling telcos to provide differentiated, customer-centric experiences.

While OSS remains tied closely to telco-specific networks and operational tasks, BSS is poised to become a platform for broader engagement and interaction. As 5G infrastructure becomes increasingly shared and interconnected, moving towards a global, pooled resource model, BSS must rise to support this shared ecosystem dynamically. Eventually, OSS will also join this multisided platform, facilitating a holistic, integrated telecom ecosystem designed for the network of the future.

The platform approach:

Telecom operators invest substantial executive time in managing their Business Support Systems (BSS). It is a well-known fact that the processes that consume the most time also have the highest impact on the bottom line. By moving the BSS to an industry-neutral platform, operators can unlock a significant amount of time spent on BSS-related activities, positively impacting their bottom line and freeing up valuable resources.

Telecommunications has transcended its role as a mere industry and has become an integral part of every aspect of our lives. Communication is now embedded in every application and has become a default expectation for users. As the earliest Millennials enter their forties and the Gen Z workforce emerges, their expectations of telecom services mirror the seamless experiences they encounter in their social media world. The time has come for the telecom industry to embrace change and cater to the needs of this new generation

The convergence of technology and communication has created an opportunity for telecom operators to reimagine their business models. BSS platformization plays a crucial role in this transformation. By adopting a platform approach, operators can deliver the personalized, dynamic, and innovative experiences that the new generation demands. Moving the BSS processes to a telco-neutral platform vendor offers telecom operators numerous advantages. It enables seamless integration with third-party services and applications, fostering a vibrant ecosystem of partners and developers. A platformized BSS facilitates rapid innovation, allowing operators to introduce new products and services with agility. Moreover, it empowers operators to leverage data-driven insights to deliver personalized experiences and optimize operational efficiency.

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The concept of hyper scalers like Amazon offering a comprehensive BSS solution with only the differentiating customer-facing elements managed by telecom operators is emerging as a transformative model. Although it’s unclear how advanced these efforts currently are, Hyper scalers in collaboration with Telco vendors, are actively developing cloud-based BSS solutions designed to streamline telecom infrastructures, automate backend processes, and free operators to concentrate on innovation and customer experience. Such collaborations have led to SaaS-based, modular BSS environments, enabling Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to prioritize customer engagement without the operational burden of maintaining complex, traditional BSS systems.

Hyper scalers bring scalability and a suite of advanced tools, such as machine learning, real-time analytics, and AI-powered customer experience enhancements, that support operators in swiftly modernizing their services and scaling within 5G and IoT ecosystems. This platform approach consolidates telecom-specific functionalities—churn prediction, fraud monitoring, and customer interaction insights—within a single BSS ecosystem. By leveraging these cloud-native tools, operators can drive competitive differentiation while minimizing the need for in-depth BSS infrastructure management, ultimately enabling a more agile, customer-centric telecom environment.

Successful Platform strategies for BSS

?Enabling value creation: A successful BSS platform should address the fundamental question of “How do I enable others to create Value?” The entire architecture and? operations should align with this strategic intent. The BSS platforms inherently lend themselves to a platform strategy as both transaction and innovation platforms , facilitating complementary innovation and connecting market sides.

The multi-faceted sides of a BSS platform: ?To thrive, a BSS platform must cater to multiple sides, including customers, operators, partners and the app eco system. At the core of a successful BSS platform lies the product catalogue which enables seam less co-creation and co-management between the partner and the operator sides.The Product Catalog as the Granular Offering Layer: The product catalog represents the granularization of telecom offerings, defining and capturing every aspect related to billing, taxation, and event identification. It serves as a comprehensive repository of telecom products and services, facilitating their efficient management and monetization.

The Product Catalog as the granular offering layer: The Product catalog represents the granularization of telecom offerings , defining and capturing every aspect related to billing, taxation and event identification. It serves as a comprehensive repository of telecom products and services, facilitating their efficient management and monetization. Platform strategy to the product catalog unlocks numerous benefits for telecom professionals. It enables rapid introduction of new offerings, supports dynamic pricing and packaging strategies, facilitates personalized customer experiences, and fosters agile product lifecycle management. Moreover, it empowers operators to adapt quickly to evolving market demands while nurturing a vibrant co-creating and co-managing ecosystem of partners and developers.

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Transitioning from daisy chaining to event-driven orchestration: The traditional approach of sequentially chaining events to build workflows in order management systems is rapidly becoming obsolete. In the dynamic and complex 5G landscape, event-driven orchestration emerges as the optimal model, offering a holistic, real-time view of the telecom ecosystem. By integrating components like the product catalog, order management, billing systems, and network resources, event-driven orchestration ensures seamless, synchronized operations.

This approach leverages events as immediate triggers, allowing for flexible resource allocation, personalized customer experiences, and rapid fulfillment of complex service requests. Ultimately, it transforms telecom operations into a responsive, adaptive system capable of meeting the demands of modern, data-intensive services. Telecom professionals must prioritize the development of scalable and flexible event-driven architectures, which can evolve with the changing needs of the industry.

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Where Will the Charging Function Happen in the platform strategy?

One important question that arises in the context of BSS platformization is where the charging function will take place. Will it be at the individual operator level or within a centralized, multi-vendor BSS platform? This decision has implications for the architecture and efficiency of the overall system. A potential approach is to initially locate the charging function at the edge, where the User Plane Function (UPF) resides. By doing so, the metadata of the online charging function can be transferred to the centralized BSS in near real-time to support customer-facing functions. This allows for a distributed architecture that combines the benefits of edge computing with centralized data processing.

In this scenario, the Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) and Online Charging System (OCS) components of the BSS platform can be considered as Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) components. They can be deployed in close proximity to the UPF, enabling low-latency interactions and efficient data processing. This can be achieved by spawning PCRF/OCS containers at the locations where the UPF is deployed.

Furthermore, with the use of AI/ML tooling, it becomes possible to dynamically adjust the capacity handling of the charging function. Multiple containers can be spawned in load sharing mode, ensuring scalability and efficient resource utilization. This enables the system to adapt to changing demands and optimize performance.

Overall, the decision regarding the location of the charging function in the BSS platform strategy involves considerations of latency, data transfer, scalability, and resource optimization. By leveraging edge computing capabilities and utilizing containerization techniques, telecom operators can strike a balance between localized processing and centralized control, ultimately delivering efficient and responsive charging functionalities.

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BSS Platform – Components and Layers

1. Layers User Layer: Representing end-users, partners, and internal telecom teams. API Gateway Layer: This layer connects all external interfaces and internal microservices, managing traffic, authentication, and scalability. Core BSS Platform Layer: The core services for customer management, billing, order management, and charging. Event-Driven Orchestration Layer: Facilitates event-based communication and triggers, enabling responsive workflows across services. Edge Computing & Data Processing Layer: Localized components (e.g., PCRF, OCS) positioned near the UPF to reduce latency. AI/ML Analytics Layer: Enabling real-time analytics for churn prediction, fraud detection, and personalized recommendations.
2. Components within the Core BSS Platform Layer Product Catalog: Centralized repository of product data, including billing, taxation, and pricing information. Order Management System: Handles service provisioning, activation, and management, integrated via APIs to the product catalog and billing systems. Billing & Charging Systems: Centralized billing functions for processing charges with API access to the charging metadata at the edge. Partner & App Ecosystem Integration: API-driven access points for partners and third-party app ecosystems to co-create offerings.
3. Event-Driven Orchestration Details Orchestration Engine: Manages event triggers that synchronize workflows across different BSS components. Integration with Network Resources: API connections to the network, using events to handle dynamic allocations and real-time resource adjustments.
4. API-Driven Integrations External APIs: Interfaces for hyperscaler tools (e.g., AWS, Azure) and third-party services, allowing telecom operators to integrate cloud-native services. Internal APIs: Enable data exchange across BSS components, supporting modularity and flexibility. Hyperscaler Tools Integration: Cloud-native tools like real-time analytics, machine learning, and AI-powered CX enhancement.
5. Edge Computing & Data Processing Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Components: On-premises containers for PCRF and OCS, directly interfacing with the UPF. Metadata Transfer Mechanism: Near real-time data transfer from edge to centralized BSS for consolidated reporting and analysis.
6. AI/ML Analytics Layer Real-Time Analytics: AI/ML models for churn prediction, fraud detection, and customer personalization. Data-Driven Insights: Enabling adaptive operations and responsive customer engagement strategies.
7. Platform Management Console Operator Dashboard: Provides centralized visibility over BSS operations, performance metrics, and event-driven orchestration flows. Partner & Ecosystem Management: Interfaces for managing external partnerships, third-party apps, and joint service offerings.

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Consolidation is inevitable-The question is where

?BSS platform strategy holds the key to unlocking telecom operators' untapped potential. By addressing the challenges of legacy system integration, data standardization, and organizational change, operators can leverage an operator-neutral platform that enhances operational efficiency, fosters innovation, and delivers seamless experiences demanded by the new generation.

The telecommunications landscape is evolving at a rapid pace, making it imperative for operators to adapt and leverage new thinking to thrive in this dynamic environment. The time has come to embrace BSS platform strategy and harness its transformative power in shaping the future of the telecom industry. By doing so, operators can position themselves at the forefront of the industry and unlock new opportunities for growth and success.

As Starlink and similar satellite networks bring the promise of connecting every person on Earth, traditional telecom operators face a critical turning point. The future will be defined by the ability to deliver exceptional last-mile experiences, and tomorrow’s telcos must build new competencies to stay competitive in this evolving landscape. Stay tuned for more insights on these transformations in my upcoming articles.

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