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As 2007 was winding down, major players from different regions and previously distinct industries were taking aim at each other. Increasingly, competition is not two telcos squaring off; it’s a telco wrestling with a cable MSO, or an application developer seeking concessions from a wireless carrier. New technologies, expanded capacity, and extended coverage seem to come online every day, making the industry seem new with virtually every passing day.

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Product management is terribly old news in certain market areas. General retail. Fast-moving consumer goods. Pharmaceuticals. However, in the telecom world, product management tends to more closely resemble something between an unattainable goal and an Achilles' Heel. In order to get a more complete picture of the realities of modern product management in the telecom space, I did what any sensible journalist would do if given the opportunity: I sat in a room full of very smart, very experienced people keen to talk to one another about the subject.

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“Open” is the word of the day here in the Pipeline newsroom. With Verizon’s announcement to supposedly open its network and AT&T’s excitement to jump on the bandwagon, along with Google’s push for open software, we're seeing that four-letter “O” word everywhere. There was a lot of news this month regarding wireless services and their providers, as well as a bit of the usual. Enjoy your very first OSS NewsWatch of the year and keep reading in the months to come. There’s sure to be plenty of interesting events in 2008.

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Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) are being built by dozens of vendors, and dozens more are contributing bits and parts to various SDPs. Yet every SDP is different and mutually incompatible. Further, some SDPs support and leverage IMS while others do not. Into this mess, the TMF has stepped forward with a powerful vision called a Service Delivery Framework (SDF). SDF will aim at interoperability. SDPs allow the rapid creation of services. SDF is planed as a broad glue using SOA to link otherwise incompatible SDPs with other resources and enablers.

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As Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) for IMS-based services are gradually embraced by providers, the role of operations support systems (OSS) is rightly being re-examined. Most SDP vendors are positioning their offerings as encompassing service creation, orchestration, and execution, as well as back-office functions that traditionally have been handled by OSS solutions. Despite this overlap, there remains an ongoing need for scalable, standards-based OSSs that can complement the flexible service delivery model...

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Today, service providers are undergoing wrenching change. The widespread adoption of IP and the Internet, and the resulting commoditization of voice revenues – the traditional mainstay of service providers’ business – are turning traditional business models upside down. At the same time, the increasing availability of network-agnostic, over-the-top services from new-generation, Internet-only service providers demonstrates that innovation and revenue-generating services are far from dead.

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Well, old man 2007 has passed on, and the bouncing baby known as 2008 is rolling out. Right around now, we're all fumbling through our long list of foibles searching for a particularly obnoxious one to cast aside in the New Year. We'll start using that treadmill in the corner of our basement or start drinking more pomegranate juice. We'll visit our Aunt Mildred more often or finally throw out that box of Sade albums.