Reliance Jio Infocomm has struck a $10 million three-year Operation Support Systems (OSS) deal with Swedish telecom gear manufacturer, Ericsson. As per this deal, Ericsson will provide service fulfillment software solutions that consist of 9 suites, including Catalog Manager, GIS-based Network Engineer and Granite Inventory, to Reliance Industries Limited’s telecom unit.
What is OSS?
OSS essentially consists of software applications that support the back-office activities of telecom operators and maintain customer services.
Considered to be the world’s largest network gear maker, Ericsson’s service fulfillment solution provides to telecom operators high levels of service agility across various processes such as planning, provisioning and activation. With the help of these solutions, operators are able to create products demanded by customers at a faster rate.
Ericsson’s Involvement in India’s Telecom Sector
In addition to the latest orders received from Reliance Jio, Ericsson has also signed other software solution deals with India’s leading operators, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.
Bharti Airtel receives prepaid self-care solutions from the Swedish company, which covers the operator’s night store. The companies also joined hands for the supply of base stations and other equipment for Bharti Airtel’s FDD-LTE-based 4G network that uses airwaves in the 1800 Mhz band.
Additionally, Idea Cellular uses Ericsson’s services for real-time charging for its post-paid subscribers and Evolved IP Network solutions.
Ericsson had also signed a 5-year deal with Vodafone India to manage their pre-paid charging system for the 75 million customers that are spread across 5 critical circles in India.
Reliance Jio’s OSS and BSS Deals
All the solutions that will be provided to Reliance Jiocome from former OSS service provider Telcordia that was acquired by Ericsson in January 2012. The deal has been signed under the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model for a period of 3 years. Sources said that the annual maintenance contract (AMC) model of services will be applicable at the end of 3 years.
Reliance Jio has also partnered with a number of other vendors to optimize its OSS as well as business support systems (BSS), which help support customer interfacing activities such as customer relationship management, call center automation and billing. These vendors include the likes of Cisco, IBM, SAP, Cognizant, Hewlett-Packard and Subex.
Launching 4G Services in India
Reliance Jio is the only telecom company to have a pan-India license for 4G services. In addition to this, it is also the newest entrant in the country’s telecom sector. The company has been gearing up to offer 4G services early next year. It will compete with rivals such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India amidst ever-increasing data usage by mobile phone users.
While the field trials are in progress, its 4G services are expected to commence in phases in the first half of 2015. As the only telecom operator to own 2300 Mhz bandwidth in all 22 circles in India, it will be offering its 4G services on the TDD-LTE standard.