Case Study: TTI Telecom OSS Helps Orange Get to 3G

Partner Communications Israel (Orange IL) (PTNR) planned to enter the 3G market in December 2004. Already a leading 2G provider, Partner needed a seamless transition to incorporate 3G services without noticeable effect on current subscribers' user experience.

TTI Telecom (TTIL) designed an OSS solution in line with TMF NGOSS and MTNM concepts, maintaining software and application flexibility to comply with constant UMTS technology upgrades and new service offerings. A unified network-wide mediation layer, and sophisticated integration between Fault and Performance Management systems, gave the solution the proactive capabilities necessary to maintain operational efficiency and a reputation for premium service quality.

Problem:

Partner Communications Israel became a leading player in the Israeli mobile communications market by 2004. Orange launched its 2G, GSM-based network in January 1999, and by late 2004 had become a leading service provider, having built up a subscriber base of more than 2 million (around a third of the nation's population at the time) and offering nationwide coverage. Based on the state of technology and competition in the market at the time, Partner planned to roll out its 3G UMTS network in December 2004.

In order to maximize the returns on the significant investment dedicated to the 3G rollout, there were a few key business-level challenges which Partner would have to address from the initial network planning stages. First, Partner aimed to secure a solid market share with a loyal customer base. In a market already highly saturated with 2G services, this goal would have to be achieved with a high degree of flexibility to rapidly offer any new content or service popular among 3G subscribers, as well as the ability to provide premium QoS and differentiate themselves with a reputation for a satisfying user experience. Secondly, Partner would be obligated to offer attractive prices for its 3G subscription plans, while at the same time ensuring the profitability of its 3G business plan. Therefore, any solution selected to achieve Partner's service management goals would also have to maximize efficiency in network operations as well.

Working toward a solution:

In working to solve the business-level challenges listed above, Partner would have to address several technical challenges as well. The new network would be far more complex than the 2G network already in operation. The 3G services would have to span a multidomain network architecture more complex than the one they were currently managing, which would include its RAN access points and the core, IP traffic, and various applications and content servers. Additionally, Partner would have to manage the network over a wider range of interface protocols, such as SNMP, Corba, XML and others. The infrastructure components themselves would be coming from multiple vendors, so the network management would need to incorporate increasingly varied data sources. Finally, once it was all in place, they still had the challenge of keeping up with frequent updates in UMTS technology.

To address this management challenge, Partner had to select the right OSS vendor as its network management partner, with whom it would work in close coordination to build the overall solution. Partner chose TTI Telecom due to the best-of-breed technology in its products and high-level professional services. In addition to its offering of advanced individual OSS products, TTI Telecom was also selected its integration capabilities. Seamless integration with the network ensures smooth operation and flexibility in network planning, while sophisticated integration between the Fault and Performance OSS modules enable advanced, proactive management capabilities.