Today’s Communications Service Providers (CSP) are seeking to transform themselves into experience providers that offer an expanded portfolio of residential and business services to increase average revenue per user (ARPU), reduce churn and attract new customers. The traditional model of competing on bandwidth and price is not enough against Over-The-Top (OTT) service providers. OTT providers are leveraging the CSP’s infrastructure to provide highly valuable services to end users. This blog highlights ways in which a CSP can harness its infrastructure to provide immersive subscriber experiences and grow the business.
Top 5 experiences for residential subscribers:
- Managed WiFi – 60% to 70% of support calls are related to WiFi within the subscriber’s premise and not the termination point. Frequently, the CSP ends up supporting equipment that they did not provide. CSPs can use service assurance software and WiFi management solutions that provide end-to-end visibility into the subscriber’s experience from the access line all the way into the subscriber’s home. These solutions enable them to economically and effectively provide a managed WiFi service.
- Cyber Security – Today’s home networks are increasingly vulnerable to malicious cyber-attacks as smart devices proliferate into the home. Protecting these devices from cyber-attacks in addition to providing antivirus services is a necessity. CSPs can leverage Cloud based WiFi solutions that include cyber security software to protect their subscriber’s home. In addition, the CSP can protect their infrastructure from an attack originating from vulnerable devices within the home.
- AI-Based Quality of Experience and Experience on Demand – Subscriber quality of experience (QoE) can vary significantly at different times of day and with different family preferences. CSPs can provide timely services with relevant QoE using AI-based solutions that monitor user behavior and manage QoE based on usage patterns. This is analogous to a thermostat that automatically adjusts room temperature based on weather and learned subscriber behavior-based temperature setting. On top of that, CSPs can use end-to-end orchestration and assurance solutions to enable services for subscribers on-demand. For instance, providing the ability via an app, to temporarily increase a subscriber’s bandwidth for a particular event.
- Parental Control – Today’s parents face a daunting task to manage online exposure and screentime for their children. CSPs can offer integrated WiFi solutions that monitor (and allow parents to track) kids’ activities across all devices and enforce restrictions on duration of usage, online content and website access.
- Online Identity Protection – There’s increased awareness surrounding the dangers and prevalence of identity theft and other violations of personal privacy. CSPs can offerservices to protect a subscriber’s online identity through capabilities like secure VPN tunnels, password manager applications and personal information vulnerability assessments.
5 top experiences for small to midsized businesses (SMBs)
- Managed WiFi and Captive Portal: SMBs require very reliable WiFi coverage and potentially the ability to open their WiFi network to guests and customers. CSPs can deliver a bundled solution where they provide WiFi optimization and a captive portal (a web page requiring WiFi users to agree to terms of service before they can gain access to resources on the network).
- Patron Customer insights – Many SMBs want to improve their ability to understand customer behavior. How often does a customer visit their physical business location or website? How long do they stay? Who do they arrive with or share the experience with?What purchases do they make? Helping SMBs garner these insights is highly valuable for providing an improved customer experience and building customer loyalty to create valuable “patron” relationships, develop new products/services and more.
- Workforce Management – Similar to customer insights, CSPs can provide workforce insights and help manage employees’ WiFi access. For instance, a small business owner might want to monitor whether a certain employee is at work, how long they have been there, and how they are spending their time, as well as restrict their internet usage to job-specific sites.
- Enterprise security – Many SMBs lack the expertise and large IT budgets to properly secure their networks and data with in-house resources. However, they can still get enterprise-grade cyber security protection from their CSPs, such as an end-to-end secured connection with cyber security protection originating from the SMB’s premises.
- Auto Bandwidth Adaptation Service – AI-based service management can allocate capacity based on an SMB’s capacity tier and QoE usage patterns. For instance, AI models can predict surges in traffic due to a multitude of factors and automatically adjust the capacity prior to the surge. In addition, CSPs can manage QoE for a particular set of mission critical devices and application.
What investments are most needed within your network infrastructure to enable the transformation to experience provider? To lay out a roadmap for your unique transformation journey leveraging open, best-of-breed solutions that bridge today’s silos of information and accelerate time to benefit, contact DZS.