BIG DATA IN

TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
INTRODUCTION
As a telecommunications service provider, you face an
increasingly challenging business environment. Revenue
from traditional sources such as voice and messaging
continues to decline. Regulatory action, designed to
foster competition, is driving prices down. Over-the-top
providers are attracting growing numbers of subscribers,
and consuming significant bandwidth on your network. The
advent of smartphones is causing traffic rates to grow at a
staggering rate. You are being forced to spend more money
provisioning and operating your network to carry all this
new traffic, much of which brings you no more revenue,
at a time when your top line is under pressure. What can
be done to address these challenges? In this paper we
explore a couple of key use cases for Big Data, and give
some guidance on how to exploit the opportunities the
latest Big Data technologies bring.
WHY BIG DATA?
Simply put, use of Big Data allows you to gain a deeper
understanding of what your subscribers are doing on
your network. This can benefit you in two principal areas.
Firstly, when you know the traffic and service trends on
your network, you will be able to make more intelligent
decisions about designing and running your network,
thereby reducing capital and operational expenditure while
improving overall service quality. Secondly, once you know
which data services your subscribers consume, including
those offered by over-the-top providers, you will be able
to design offers more directly relevant to them, thereby
increasing average revenue per user, reducing churn and
attracting new subscribers. These two areas are closely
interlinked: for example, by making offers which change
the behaviour of subscribers, you can alter traffic flows and
ensure network capacity is used more efficiently.
NETWORK OPTIMISATION
According to the GSMA, mobile CapEx spending accounts
for just under 20% of revenue, with OpEx spending
considerably higher. Much of the CapEx and perhaps half
of the OpEx will be destined for the network. Higher speed
connections, data-heavy services such as video, and the
advent of more powerful devices will see this continue. So,
anything that can be done to optimise spending on the
network without impacting your subscribers experience
can really improve your bottom line.
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Big Data can help you decide how to operate your network
efficiently during peak times. It can capture traffic and
service trends, allowing you to plan how to upgrade your
network to cope with future demand. As an example, you
could use it to help you choose how to configure cell sites
and where to deploy new ones, and to consider your air
interface investments alongside those of other access
technologies. The aim is to delay CapEx spending until
just before it is needed, and to squeeze OpEx spending
where possible. The good news is that the data you
need to achieve this already exists in your organisation.
The challenge is for you to consolidate all of the diverse
data sets across your internal departments, systems
and owners in order to perform the analysis. Big Data
provides the architecture, platform, and tools to facilitate
these difficult tasks. A well thought out implementation
of Big Data technology and services could enable you to
significantly reduce your network spending.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
Chances are that your data subscribers have a lightweight
relationship with you, based around the number of bits
they consume, with some bundled call minutes and
messaging. You may see data as your source of future
growth, but customer loyalty is poor as your subscribers
chase the best deal.
Service providers can use Big Data to differentiate
themselves from their competitors. By offering and
providing bundles closely aligned to subscriber needs,
loyalty and satisfaction can be enhanced. Each bundle
needs to be presented at a price that is right for you
and your subscriber, and to contain only those services
which are relevant to the subscriber. Further offers of new
services should only be targeted at those subscribers likely
to buy them; otherwise you waste marketing money and
take up your subscribers valuable time. Finally, the ability
to identify your most valuable and influential subscribers,
and to understand how well your service bundle meets
their needs, is the key to retaining them and those
influenced by them.
Big Data technology is perfectly suited to the data
collection / enrichment / analysis required to facilitate
these aims. Once you see what services your subscribers
are using, and segment your subscriber base into clear
and recognisable personae, you can begin to design
personalised service bundles which appeal to them.
Selective targeting of these bundles amongst your
subscribers will see your campaign dollars go further and
your revenue per user increase. Similarly, by identifying

changes in usage patterns known to lead to churn,
proactive offers can be made to retain your most valuable
subscribers. Importantly, Big Data will let you see which
over-the-top services are consumed by your subscribers,
and allow you to choose which OTT service owners you
partner with. When it comes to negotiating terms with
these new partners, you will have all the data you need in
order to strike the best deal.
Some service providers are sharing bulk subscriber
usage data to third parties, suitably anonymised. Where
permitted by law, there is a great appetite for such
information amongst market research, advertising, and
other firms who have an interest in selling their insights
and services to subscribers with particular usage profiles
and / or geographic characteristics.
CHOOSING A VENDOR
In this section we give some guidance on what to
look for, and how to select your approach. Big Data
vendors generally fall into three categories specialists,
generalists, and integrators. The table which follows
identifies some typical strengths and weaknesses.
As the table indicates, there is no clear leader among
the categories and choosing a vendor can present a
real challenge. In our view, the most important selection
characteristics are as follows.
Value Value equals Benefit minus Cost. It is very
tempting to select the lowest cost offer. Make sure
your provider fully understands all your needs, and that
the quoted cost allows for everything required so that
there are no nasty surprises during execution. Your ideal
provider will be able to help you estimate the business
benefit you are aiming for, and to help you compile your
business case. They should not charge to help you with
these tasks.
Technology Here it is important that the actual
business requirement drives the choice of technology.
If a company who sells only Relational Database
technology is trying to use it to address a problem with
large volumes of unstructured data, you should be very
Type Strengths
Specialists Latest technology
Technical and data skills
Telecoms domain knowledge
Generalists Mature technology
Technical and data skills
Proven methodology
Integrators Technology portfolio
Telecoms domain knowledge
Existing track record
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wary. It is important to consider alternatives, and this is
why it is worth considering an integrator or perhaps a
larger provider with a broad technology portfolio. Open
Source technology should be preferred to proprietary
technology, as suppliers may leverage their position
aggressively after selection. Do make sure any Open
Source technology is mature and well supported.
Domain Knowledge Many companies have
inadequate telecoms domain knowledge. You may end
up teaching them how your network is configured, how
to collect your data, and how to understand and analyse
it. Despite the larger scale and cheaper price, the value
that a generalist may bring can be limited and you may
end up being your own integrator. This is fine provided
you have the staff and wish to retain overall control of
the Big Data project.
Flexibility Force-fitting a solution from another
domain (e.g. financial services) into telecoms can be
fraught. Although the technology may be mature, the
people implementing it may not have a good story on
how to adapt it to your vertical and your needs. Ask for
references and have your technical people thoroughly
investigate the solution on offer. Having chosen a Big
Data collection methodology, platform and tools, you
want it to be able to stretch to accommodate all of your
future use cases so as to derive maximum benefit.
Approach We strongly recommend you choose a
company that is focussed on delivering the outcome
you require. Many companies will major on the product
or the technology, and once the system is installed and
commissioned will leave you to operate it gathering
and analysing the data, and delivering the programme
of business change required to implement what you
have learned from your Big Data endeavours. Your
ideal provider should have consultancy skills as well as
telecoms domain knowledge.
Interoperability You may have decided to split
up your Big Data deployment into smaller more
manageable chunks, and to spread the work among
different providers. If so, you will prefer approaches
with open interfaces, developer tools, APIs, and strong
support capability. This will make it easier for you to be
integrator, and ensure your vendors cooperate well.
Weaknesses
Technology led
One-size-fits-all approach
Proprietary technology
Limited vision
Telecoms domain knowledge
Product led
Limited vision
Expensive/bespoke solution led
Control of technology
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