FES
The Three-course Meal for Telcos

Over the past decade, the telecommunications industry has witnessed tremendous growth and significant changes. The increased popularity of internet-based communication services like WhatsApp, Viber, iMessage, and Skype has substantially decreased the usage of traditional communication channels like SMS and voice calls. However, despite the growing number of subscribers globally, it’s a tense battle for telcos to maintain market competitiveness and attract new customers. On that note, it is important that telcos leverage technologies such as business intelligence and data analytics to gain insights which help them make informed business decisions. Philadelphia based Further Enterprise Solutions (FES) surfaces as a strong proposition for the industry with its 15 years of experience in providing innovative solutions to telcos and managing large scale turnkey projects.

According to Hooman Parsia, CEO at FES, in the years to come mobile phone networks will be predominately made up of “small cell” base stations which can be put inside buildings, up on light poles, etcetera. The firm’s FES-IQ software helps mobile operators plan intelligent deployment of these cells by allowing the operator to know where “everyone” is. “FES-IQ enables mobile operators to identify areas that need more concentration and deployment of small cells.” The software also provides an operator with insight on the “competition landscape.” Using this information, mobile operators can address areas where they are lagging behind in competition, exploit potential areas, and improve their network efficiency and performance. For instance, Verizon already knows where its customers are, but what Verizon might not know is where its competitor’s customers are. With FES-IQ, Verizon can identify spots where it needs to deploy more cells which give it the leverage to attract newer subscribers.

Benchmark drive tests are standard practice in the industry that allows companies to review their network performance and the competition landscape.

FES-IQ enables mobile operators to identify areas that need more concentration and deployment of small cells

The use of FES-IQ software allows operators to avoid performing such costly and time-consuming drive tests, which conventionally are carried out in an external environment. FES-IQ can review a mobile carrier’s performance and competition in internal environments such as offices and malls by crowd-sourcing network-based data from mobile phone users.

Over the years mobile networks have evolved drastically at a rapid pace; from 2G GSM to 3G UMTS to 4G LTE. Operators in the telecommunication industry need to foresee the future and be prepared for such changing scenarios. Now as the world gears up for 5G, the FES TrafIQ software helps operators prepare for this upgrade. “FES TrafIQ performs predictive analysis on big data to predict a mobile operator’s future KPIs, based upon network growth for intelligent capacity planning.” The predictive analytics feature of FES TrafIQ predicts an operator’s future performances and capacity with future traffic and spectrum scenarios under consideration, warns about potential problems, balances network traffic to maximize customer experience, and optimizes timing for spectrum migration. A smooth transition to 5G will depend on a mobile operator being “spectral-efficient”, and FES TrafIQ enables operators to optimize their existing 3G and 4G networks in anticipation of 5G.

To sum up all the above, FES can be considered as a sumptuous three-course meal that does more than just satiate appetite. The FES-IQ software assists the expansion of existing 3G and 4G network—starters. The FES TrafIQ software helps telcos gear up for future developments like 5G initiation—mains. The concerted use of the two enables companies to increase revenue—desserts.