 | Industry Insight: 4G Continues to Top the News
| 4G is top of mind for the wireless industry. Verizon's CEO expects some traffic to shift from traditional premium broadband services inside the home to new LTE networks. Sprint's CEO acknowledged that the carrier's early commitment to WiMAX has been great for customers but has not provided the 4G edge they hoped for. Leap Wireless is considering entering the 4G space next year through wholesale agreements with Clearwire or LightSquared.
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| Chicago Telecom Professionals
| Do you work in the Chicago metro area or have colleagues who do? Check out Chicago Telecom Professionals, an industry education and networking group that formed this year. Email us with questions or for more info.
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Need a Laugh?
| Much of the country is getting its first dusting of snow. Here are some ideas from Calvin and Hobbes on how to make the most of it.
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Please contact us any time with questions, feedback, or just to exchange ideas about telecom industry issues. You can reach us at 847-782-1500 or info@atswireless.com. For the latest information, visit us at www.atswireless.com.
Sincerely,
Richard McFarlane
Alliance Telecom Solutions |
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| Message from Richard McFarlane, President
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4G - LTE light "Less band width, more Hype"
The transition to LTE over the next few years will usher in a new wave of innovation in our industry. Carriers are already announcing 4G networks, though they are HSPA+ deployments and will not yet meet global standards.
But even these deployments will require changes in the business processes in Care, Billing, Product, and Network. Policy management and security will face challenges following the network technologies. Partner Management and the transition to GSM for all CDMA carriers will challenge Billing, Customer Experience and Revenue Assurance.
To support our clients, Alliance has developed a 4G Readiness Assessment process. Alliance consultants will help you assess the gap in current business process on B/OSS systems to support your "to-be" products and structure.
We are providing on-site assessments at no charge to give you an objective third party overview of your plans. For details on what is covered or to schedule a session, please contact me directly.
Finally, let me thank each of you for allowing us to complete our 17th year of service to the telecom industry. We extend our best wishes to your for the holidays and we hope you will take a few moments to share your plans for the New Year.
Happy Holidays,
Richard McFarlane
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| | Meet Our Staff: Marcel De Lorean
| Featured Consultant: Marcel De Lorean, Senior Solutions /Enterprise Architect
Marcel has 10 years of telecom B/OSS experience and has worked in IT for 20 years.
TT: How did you get into telecom?
MDL: I joined Qwest Communications in 2000 after spending 10 years of my IT career at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies. The decision to move to telecom was a "jump of faith" as telecom was uncharted and unfamiliar territory to me; yet it seemed exciting at the time because telecoms were fully engaged in deploying the Internet to consumers and were willing to recognize the importance of IT technology facilitating economy of scale in their BSS/OSS. I was hired as Sr. Product Manager to lead the product development for Qwest Control, at the time the only e-commerce solution in the business, enabling commercial customers to manage their products and services with Qwest. I spent 5 years with Qwest architecting new solutions supporting the business needs of Qwest Commercial Customers Sales Operations organization.
TT: What is your subject matter expertise and how did you develop your knowledge?
MDL: My focus and experience is in BSS/OSS transformation and assisting senior management with IT Architecture strategy. Initially I got involved with OSS/BSS in Qwest and immediately recognized the strategic importance of OSS/BSS in the telco environment. Many telcos and other (established) communication and media service providers, especially incumbents, are being bogged down by legacy OSS/BSS and unable to respond effectively (speed to market) to innovations by smaller, younger, and more agile CSPs who are not weighted down by legacy OSS/BSS. I spent 2.5 years in Telecom New Zealand architecting their NGOSS and working on transformation roadmap for their OSS/BSS.
TT: What do you feel is the biggest contribution you've made to a client?
MDL: The delivery of NGOSS/BSS blueprint (logical and functional) architecture to Telecom New Zealand (TNZ). It was probably the most complex OSS/BSS transformation initiative I was involved with, spanning several years with deliverables scheduled up to five years out. At that time TNZ was in need of developing a capability affording them to respond swiftly to increasing competitive pressure, which was the result of market deregulation. In addition TNZ was being forced by the government to comply with "operational separation", a regulatory mandate that introduced another layer of complexity into the OSS/BSS transformation initiative.
TT: What is the most interesting project you've worked on?
MDL: At Qwest I developed and delivered prototype (HTML/DHTML) facilitating the visualization of a complex concept ("360 Degree Customer View") CRM platform for commercial customers that would utilize existing IT systems and components. This resulted in saving the organization $50M of unnecessary capital investment for a COTS product.
TT: What is your favorite city/country to work in?
MDL: Although I enjoyed working and living abroad, I do love Colorado and the Denver/Boulder area and that's where I prefer to work. The combination of its climate and great outdoors are hard to beat.
TT: What do you like best about working with Alliance?
MDL: I like their people; a relatively small group of responsive individuals who make their consultants feel they are important assets to their organization. I like the direct access I have to individuals at all levels of the organization. I also appreciate Alliance's flexibility in supporting their consultants' work-life balance activities.
TT: What hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?
MDL: I like the outdoors and consequently I try to spend as much of my free time enjoying my favorite sports and hobbies such as skiing (downhill and cross country), cycling (road and mtb), hiking, and mushroom hunting. Recently my wife and I returned from an 80-day trip around Europe (Planes, Trains, Automobiles and a tandem bicycle). Not exactly Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, but nevertheless, it included plenty of adventure. We racked up over 800 miles on our tandem, 5,000+ miles in car and over 1,400 miles on trains. Besides the cultural highlights we experienced in cities we visited (Wien, Prague, Paris, and Florence), my favorite of the trip was the chance to fulfill one of my personal goals (and to stroke my competitive ego) and cycle two of the renowned mountain roads made famous by the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France bicycle races: Passo dello Stelvio (2,800m) and Mont Ventoux, (1,900m) respectively. Both were spectacular.
To request Marcel for your next project or to view his full profile, please visit our web site.
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