The telecommunications industry has put its troubles behind it, and a newfound confidence is reflected in spending within the operations support system (OSS) segments. The growth in OSS spending is expected to lag only slightly our forecasted growth in service revenue over the next five years, and is more than double the OSS growth rate that we had forecasted in 2005. As such, OSS revenue is expected to increase from $42 billion in 2007 to $63 billion by 2012.

In hindsight, the industry should have seen the crash coming. The telecom industry is a service industry, and service provider revenues ultimately determine the capital available for new system purchases. As the new millennium began and the anticipated revenue from Internet-generated applications failed to materialize, the easy capital that drove the industry's investment in new systems and capacity evaporated, forcing carriers to sharply cut spending across the board.

Today, with revenue growth prospects rooted in reality, profitability is the new rallying cry. The focus of investment today is the minimizing of cost, as opposed to the maximizing of growth—so OSSes that can squeeze out unnecessary operational costs are high on carrier's shopping lists. From the OSS perspective, the focus on return on investment (ROI) is guiding new investments. Automated online billing, network asset management, configuration management and automated provisioning are experiencing renewed interest because of their ability to directly reduce the capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenses (OPEX) associated with delivering services and maintaining the network.
1.2 Definitions

OSSes give telecommunications service providers the ability to create, deploy, manage, and maintain telecommunications services, and to bill customers for the use of these services. The definitions of specific OSSes vary within the telecom industry in different regions of the world at different times. In this report, Insight defines OSSes as encompassing the following components:

- OSS software, or applications that provide the system functionality (e.g., customer care and billing functions, or network equipment surveillance and control);

- OSS platforms to run the application software, including server hardware and all required low-level software, such as the operating system, middleware, and low-level functions (e.g., event logging, integration buses, store and forward message management, database interfaces, etc.);

- computer hardware and OSS software maintenance contracts; and ........
Market Segmentation

Geographic Segmentation

North American
Asia/Pacific
Europe/Middle East/Africa
Latin America/Caribbean

Carrier Segmentation

North American

North American ILEC
North American CLEC
North American IXC
North American Cable MSO
North American Wireless

Asia/Pacific

Wireline

Wireless

Europe/Middle East/Africa

Wireline

Wireless

Latin America/Caribbean

Wireline

Wireless

OSS Sales Revenue by Service Type

Broadband Wireline
Broadband Wireless
Narrowband Wireline
Narrowband Wireless

OSS Expenditure Distribution - By Region

Billing
Customer Care
Planning/Engineering
Provisioning/Inventory
Trouble Repair
Network Management
Business Management
Workforce Management

OSS Expenditure Distribution - By Service Type

Billing
Customer Care
Planning/Engineering
Provisioning/Inventory
Trouble Repair
Network Management
Business Management
Workforce Management

OSS Professional Services by Region and Service Type

Broadband Wireline
Broadband Wireless
Narrowband Wireline
Narrowband Wireless