3G and wireless access requirements are going to create significant changes at the operations level. OSSes, the information technology infrastructure that gives carriers the ability to create, deploy, manage, and maintain network-based services, are going to be a critical area to manage as the number of users and the bandwidth of wireless increases. Traditional OSSes managed the network; new OSSes respond to, and in some cases, manage the customer.

Wireless Operations Support Systems 2005-2010 goes into detail regarding OSS opportunities, quantifying OSS revenue in several regional and functional segments over a five-year period.

OSS forecasts are provided for 2.5G and 3G data service and basic voice service support for twelve OSS types including:

Customer Care/Call Center Operations,
Billing Mediation,
Bill Rendering,
RF Planning and Engineering,
Other Planning and Engineering,
Provisioning and Inventory Management,
Trouble Repair/Service Assurance,
Network Management,
Fraud Management,
Business Management,
Workforce Management, and
Wireless Number Portability (WNP) applications.

By the end of 2005, there will be over 1.7 billion subscribers worldwide depending on mobile wireless telephones. Affordable, reliable, and ubiquitous wireless service has profoundly altered the way people access the global communications network. To date, mobile wireless growth has been driven largely by voice traffic. The wireless revolution, however, is now colliding head on with the other great telecommunications phenomenon of recent years?the Internet. The convergence of these two forces in the third generation (3G) of wireless technology represents an enormous new market opportunity.

On a worldwide basis, wireless services are growing much faster than wireline services. INSIGHT?s research suggests that wireless revenues will grow from 46.3 percent of all telecommunications services revenues in 2005 to 55.6 percent in 2010?a virtual flip within the five-year period?approaching a trillion dollar market by the close of the forecast period.

Consumers will access 3G wireless data services through different types of handheld, pocket-sized terminals. Tomorrow?s 3G mobile wireless devices will be more like personal computers (PCs) in terms of their complexity?with an operating system (OS), client applications, and multiple voice modules. These mobile devices will function as a phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), computer, television, pager, videoconferencing center, newspaper, diary, and even a credit card. Some even think that the new mobile handsets will become indispensable and carried everywhere. Users will be capable of worldwide roaming and receiving customized services based on geographical location. 3G wireless will deliver these capabilities at high speeds, ranging from 384Kbit/s to 2Mbit/s.

The potential revenue associated with wireless data services spurred network operators during the late 1990s to make enormous expenditures on new spectrum licenses for 3G, and to make further huge investments in building the networks themselves. Nonetheless, the promise of 3G is still that?a promise. Discussions of next generation wireless services inevitably come back to the unresolved issue: Who will pay and when?

Consolidation in the wireless industry has led to the presence of a few strong, international competitors in major markets, which in turn has fueled downward trends in airtime prices. While the industry has avoided the competitive free-for-all envisioned by some regulators, significant numbers of subscribers still change from one carrier to another in search of a better deal. Subscribers show little interest in paying for the full cost of the wireless devices they love. It seems unlikely, in turn, that many customers will pay lavish usage-based charges for data access. Based on the dot-com experience, advertising no longer seems to be a cure-all. So how will operators increase revenues?

One opportunity for revenue comes from service or content provider partnerships. Many potential service providers do not have a network, but still provide content services. Operators can establish revenue-sharing arrangements with these content providers in exchange for access to a wireless network provider?s customer base.