Industry-First Research from Heavy Reading and Incognito Highlights Global Challenges in Scaling Fiber-Based Services

Vancouver, Canada – January 15, 2019 – Communication service providers (CSPs) continue to be bullish about their investment in fiber but need to implement new OSS strategies to support next-generation fiber-based services, according to a recent industry survey commissioned by Incognito Software Systems Inc., a global provider of device and service management solutions for digital service providers. The study, conducted by independent research firm Heavy Reading in Fall 2018, found that service providers are re-evaluating their network design and back-office systems to accelerate the introduction of new fiber services.

With customer demand for high-bandwidth, all-IP gigabit services continuing to grow, 90 percent of respondents highlighted that CSPs will continue to invest in more fiber as a top business priority to boost network performance, improve the customer experience, and offer new services such as Gigabit Internet, IPTV, 4K/8K video streaming, and business services. The white paper entitled “Overcoming the Challenges of Scaling Next-Generation Fiber Services”, delves into the results of the industry-first research that outlines the fiber buildout, service activation, management and migration strategies of global CSPs. The report also explores the impact new fiber-based services will have on legacy BSS/OSS systems, as well as the challenges CSPs face in deploying, scaling, and migrating to fiber.

“While other surveys and the industry’s aggressive rollouts have shown the strong motivations and huge appetite that service providers have for installing more fiber, this is the first study that evaluates the operational implications of supporting fiber services,” said Alan Breznick, a senior analyst at Heavy Reading who directed the study. “More than 50 percent of those surveyed view their OSS stack as a major obstacle to scaling fiber services, with the vast majority of service providers planning either to retrofit or replace OSS platforms to integrate fiber equipment and automate business processes like service diagnostics, service fulfillment, and device discovery over the next 24 months.”

“Our customers tell us that there is no prize for being second when it comes to fiber. This research shows that fiber is more than just a new access technology. Fiber brings significant complexity to operational processes that impacts the speed at which new fiber services are launched,” said Ragu Masilamany, Vice President of Products at Incognito. “However, fiber can also be a catalyst for service innovation in areas like IPTV and Smart Home, and MSOs and Telcos need a new approach to operationalizing innovative new services over fiber in weeks versus years. Incognito’s new Fiber Service Orchestration Solution addresses different OSS retrofit and modernization strategies, coupled with significant process automation to reduce OPEX, speed time to market and scale next-generation IP services to meet consumer and business demands.”

Key findings from the report include:

• Service providers are taking wide-scale approach to fiber – As much as 48 percent of service providers are replacing or overbuilding legacy networks using “brownfield” approach;
• OSS strategy is retrofit or replace – Almost 50 percent of service providers said their approach is to retrofit its existing OSS stack to handle fiber-based services, while 31 percent said they plan to replace their existing OSS with a new OSS stack;
• Process automation will bring massive change to network operations – Over 50 percent of service providers cite service diagnostics, service fulfillment and device discovery as priorities for automation in the next 24 months;
• Top fiber deployment challenges – Network upgrades and legacy OSS integration is the biggest hurdle for fiber service delivery;
• Fiber services will have major impact on back-off systems – Service configuration and order management top list of impacted B/OSS systems.

The survey was conducted during Fall 2018 with more than 150 respondents globally from executives primarily in network engineering, network planning, and network operations functions. It was complemented by one-on-one interviews with CSPs in North America, Europe, and Asia.

The white paper is available for download here.

About Incognito

Incognito Software Systems Inc. provides service orchestration software and services that help digital service providers manage the next-generation broadband experience. Founded over 30 years ago, Incognito has over 200 customers worldwide, including America Movil, Cox, Digicel, Globe, and Orange, leveraging its solutions to fast-track the introduction of innovative broadband services over fiber and 5G fixed wireless access technologies while delivering a great customer experience. Incognito is a Lumine Group company (TSXV: LMN). Learn more at www.luminegroup.com. Visit www.incognito.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.