WiMax Billing: Considerations for an Emerging Business Model
You're building a "world-class" WiMax network. What does it take to have "world-class billing" and customer management that supports your business and scales with your success?
A recent report from In-Stat indicates that the growth of WiMAX equipment sales alone worldwide could reach $3 billion by 2010. What accounts for this sizable market potential?
WiMAX technology can quickly and inexpensively extend existing wireline networks. The platform is also capable of supporting high data rates, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) service, and enhanced IP products such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), multimedia applications and more. In fact, WiMAX can do these tasks while significantly extending the network of distance limited broadband products. As a result, WiMAX service providers have the opportunity to grow revenues and offer new Internet Protocol (IP) services at greater distances than wireline technologies. These higher-value services represent potentially lucrative revenue streams making WiMAX a desirable technology option for service providers.
However, launching a WiMAX network burdens service providers with many tasks and a steep learning curve. The physical nature of the technology and the challenges of radio frequency (RF) delivery - even in licensed band spectrum - presents obstacles even before sales begin. Deploying a network, developing RF predictor models and ensuring disaster fail-over are all profound challenges. And employees must be trained on the technology, systems, and techniques to best support wireless customers once sales begin.
At first glance, billing and provisioning may seem to be a relatively simple aspect of WiMAX deployment. Unfortunately appearances are deceiving. The costs of poorly planning for and deploying billing and CRM systems can significantly decrease profits. Additionally, any billing problems will compound over time as market pressures and the competition for broadband subscribers increases. Bundling, delivering, and supporting dynamic packages of services will be critical to customer retention and requires sophisticated billing and CRM functionality.
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