The most recent report from telecom market research firm Infonetics Research (News - Alert) suggests that the subscriber data management (SDM) market could reach $2.5 billion by 2018, with the developing services of LTE, voice over LTE (VoLTE), and voice over Wi-Fi (VoWIFI) driving that growth.
The new report, titled “Subscriber Data Management Software and Services,” shows that there is a trend toward telecoms wanting to synchronize subscriber data across various channels. No matter what devices or types of services users prefer, telecoms want all customer data accessible from central locations to be shared across multiple devices and applications.
Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence at Infonetics, commented on the nature of the market and the involvement of big data and analytics.
“LTE (News - Alert) and voice over LTE continue to drive the subscriber data management (SDM) market as operators look to synchronize data across domains and ensure a smooth transition for subscribers across access networks. And we expect voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) to have a similar accelerating effect as VoWiFi devices become available. Meanwhile, the ongoing buzz around analytics and big data is translating into interest in SDM’s role as an aggregator of subscriber information across multiple points in the network and IT realms,” Levine said.
It is clear that there is a lot at play within the emerging markets of VoLTE and VoWIFI. Not only are data-centered networks able to bring improved services to customers, they are also able to provide telecoms with a centralized infrastructure. Their customers benefit because they get enhanced voice, video, and chat, and telecoms benefit because spectrum efficiency can increase and maintenance costs can decrease.
Infonetics says the proliferation of data management services will coincide with network functions virtualization (NFV) that seeks to handle network services through software rather than through hardware. Operators are still reportedly unsure of NFV technology, however, and organizations may be unwilling to share data for fear of a privacy breach. If SDM can clear those hurdles, it may accelerate even further past where Infonetics expects.
Edited by Alisen Downey