Forging a winning LTE partnership

As telecom networks become more complex in their design and operation, partnering with a knowledgeable and capable managed services partner offers numerous advantages. As service providers in the Middle East move to launch LTE commercially, Alcatel-Lucent’s Nazih Lebbos explains the benefits of managed services in such an environment, and identifies where Alcatel-Lucent is gaining significant traction

Nazih Lebbos is Alcatel-Lucent’s Director, Services Business Development for Middle East and Africa

With its vast experience in managed services across the Middle East, extending the provision of such offerings to an LTE environment is a natural progression for Alcatel-Lucent. A number of the region’s telecom operators have been at the leading edge globally of LTE network deployment, and Alcatel-Lucent has been there to support the trials and launches.

The explosion of mobile data usage, which is only forecast to continue growing exponentially for some years to come, has led service providers to look to deploy additional infrastructure in order to cost-effectively manage the multi-media surge. However given the increased complexity found in the latest generation of mobile networks, incorporating all-IP infrastructure and non-traditional business models from over-the-top players, communications service providers are turning to partners with greater regularity, with the aim of having the partner help navigate the service provider through the new paradigms.

“When an operator looks to engage a managed services partner it is usually for a number of reasons combined,” explains Nazih Lebbos, Alcatel-Lucent’s Director, Services Business Development for Middle East and Africa. “Those reasons extend to service providers wanting to develop new income streams, to them looking at lowering their cost bases, which ultimately relates to their desire to reduce the total cost of ownership,” Lebbos adds.

Lebbos points out that an important element in the offer of managed services is in the fostering and development of customer experience management tools, which allow telcos to maximise their relationships with end-users. Also important is the facilitation of the connection to service management tools that track internal network and IT processes. The managed services layer lies above these activities and is geared at improving an operator’s overall key business operations, key quality issues and key performance indicators.

“It is important that the various operational layers – the customer experience layer, the service management layer, and the managed services layer are interconnected and viewed in a holistic fashion,” Lebbos says.

“A telecom technology provider’s performance on this is rated by the amount of network availability it is able to secure, and the time it takes to resolve issues that may occur.”

Lebbos also identifies advancements in devices, applications and content, and business models as the drivers behind the mobile data market, with the proliferation of smart devices, tablets, connected TVs, machine-to-machine applications, cloud and white-label services, and social networks being amongst the contributing factors to the increased complexity that exists today.

“There is a tremendous amount of convergence taking place in the network today,” Lebbos says. “Service providers are re-thinking business models, and this is where a company like Alcatel-Lucent can add real value given the size of our portfolio and experience. We are well known for our High-Leveraged Network, for example, which is all about utilising the network to the maximum.”

Alcatel-Lucent also benefits from having a transformational solution approach with thousands of patented, innovative methods and tools in place. Its innovation extends to service and customer experience management solutions, and the organisation counts the management of over 2,000 products across 500 vendors.

Alcatel-Lucent’s track record reaches across 130 countries fuelled by 13,500 managed services experts who have developed a best-in-class record of operational excellence.