Embracing the International Trend Towards Convergence

The connected household wants simplicity

Let’s imagine we’re a modern household shopping for connectivity because we’re getting a phone for our teen for the first time. Instead of using the incumbent mobile provider we’ve had for the past five years, we’re looking for a different option. Our bill has been creeping up lately and the customer service experience has been sub-par. In a world of far too many logins and portals, wouldn’t it be nice to go to one company for all of our connectivity needs? (That includes primary internet, 3 mobile lines, a tablet plan, a watch plan, and backup internet because we work from home and can’t risk being disconnected.)

Ideally, we can find an offer where we can bundle home internet with mobile and save. Hopefully, that provider can also supply the tablet, watch and back-up internet plans, and become our one-stop shop for connectivity. We’ll end up with one portal to manage all of our lines of service, and we’ll get one monthly bill that integrates everything together.

Market momentum

We’re seeing markets across the globe shifting towards these types of converged offers. In the US, MNOs are investing heavily in fiber to expand their fixed footprints, while cable companies are seeing impressive growth from their MVNO offers. In Spain, convergence has been a defining feature of the market for years, with providers competing to become the primary connectivity partner for the household by packaging fiber, mobile lines, television and devices around one customer relationship. In Portugal, convergence is equally embedded in the market, where operators have long competed through bundled offers that bring fixed broadband, mobile, television and voice together for the household.

When you consider the premise of higher ARPU, lower churn, and the ability to share company resources across different product lines, the international trend makes perfect sense.

The gap behind the bundle

Even though markets are trending toward convergence, we are still a long way away from the opening customer experience being the norm. It is common for operators to end up with two separate tech stacks behind the scenes to support their internet and mobile products. Think: two separate product catalogs, CRMs, billers, inventory systems, and even checkout experiences. The reality is that not many OSS/BSS platforms provide modern, innovative solutions that are purpose-built for both broadband and mobile. Even traditional, enterprise telecom software vendors will often sell two separate products to operators under one company name.

Running two separate tech stacks is frustrating for both employees and subscribers. For the operator, it means swivel chairing between systems to manage one customer, developing and maintaining middleware to manage integrations between systems, and no complete view of the subscriber. I have spoken with operators that need 90 days to launch a new bundled offer into market, and the disjointed technology stack is a major contributor.

For the subscriber, it negates the ease and simplicity described earlier. The customer might have two checkouts to navigate, two portals to manage services, and two separate bills. In some situations, there’s even separate customer care teams to manage internet versus mobile.

Make convergence real behind the scenes

As a service provider making a push towards convergence, having a converged OSS/BSS behind the scenes is essential. It creates one source of truth for the customer and their services, instead of forcing teams to coordinate separate systems. This is what makes it possible to build and launch creative offers into market segments quickly, while giving subscribers a simple experience.

Our is an example of an OSS/BSS built to bring the operational workflows that support broadband and mobile into one platform. The result is convergence that is more than a pricing bundle: it is a better operating model and simpler customer experience at every touchpoint.