Internet penetration in Pakistan has surged dramatically in recent years and will continue to do so even though there is no well-defined broadband strategy in the country yet.
Due to high service demands, service providers are pushing the limits to provide internet service regardless of access medium i.e. fiber, DSL, public Wi-Fi, Mobile, WIMAX etc. and most of them are dealing with high churn due to mismanagement of end-user quality of service experience. At the same time, the number of devices connected and services in home are constantly growing thereby making the home network more complex.
Today, the end-users expect plug and play, easy to connect and high performance everywhere in home with any type of device. There are fixed connected devices but the major growth is seen with Wi-Fi enabled devices. The average home has around 8 devices connecting to the Internet, where emails and tweets are examples of low prioritized services, online games and streaming are examples of more demanding services.
Due to the abundance of service providers in urban regions, the end-user has plenty of options to choose from between different service providers. The end-user is in most cases never happy with any of the service providers due to various obvious reasons. For instance, some offers better speed but has connection instability & support related issues. Others have delivery times for installation and activation of the service or have a complicated installation process that takes long time. There are also Wi-Fi speed and coverage issues due to the low grade end-user equipment (CPE’s) provided by the service providers to the end-use as part of the broadband subscription package.
Just do Google search on service provider reviews in Pakistan and you see a mix of feedback. The initiative from SmartChoice.PK to benchmark broadband service providers is definitely a remarkable step and a push to the service providers to innovate and compete.
We keep aside the core network challenges that almost every service provider encounters in service delivery life cycle. The service providers delivered equipment to the end user’s premises; home gateway or residential gateway is actually the operator’s service representative in the subscribers’ home. It has been observed that almost every internet provider in Pakistan offers the same residential gateway HW model or a different model from the same company (vendor) and region. The suppliers from other regions with advanced software and device capabilities are unable to sell solutions to the local service providers in Pakistan due to price pressure, geopolitical and bureaucracy related issues.
Service providers in regions where the internet penetration is high and advanced services are offered cannot consider rolling out broadband services without solid & stable home gateway equipment with superior Wi-Fi and coverage capabilities. These solutions always include a TR-069 ACS server for remote management of the devices, for zero touch provisioning, remote firmware & service upgrades, monitoring and help desk. Without this it is a lost business case.
The industry is continuously moving fast, introducing new standards that result in new services and devices. Therefore the service provider deployment strategy requires a full fleshed managed solution to be able to offer future proof and best in class service delivery to the end user.
Top three values brought to the service provider business by having TR-069 managed carrier grade CPE are:
Residential Gateway
Carrier grade equipment:
Solid, stable and high performance customer premises equipment defending service provider’s brand image.
Connectivity everywhere:
With superior Wi-Fi technology integrated, allowing connectivity in every corner of home.
Feature-Rich:
Support for advanced security, multimedia and storage features that makes broadband experience ever pleasant.
TR-069 ACS
Reducing Cost:
Minimize time and effort needed for service activation and initial subscriber provisioning.
Streamline operations:
Simplify business process by integrating service activation and support system with internal order management system.
Operational Excellence:
Subscriber centric tools allow you to assure a best-in-class support to your subscribers and by that reducing churn and increase the installed base.
About Arshad Memon:
He is an expert in broadband technologies and currently works as a Solution Management Director for Tilgin’s TR-69 ACS solution, tGem. Arshad is innovative and result oriented and can be reached via memon.arshad@gmail.com