Heavy Reading Research Reveals Quality of Service a Primary Goal for 75 Percent of Network Operators

Online, September 9, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Recent research from Heavy Reading, sponsored by policy and charging vendor, Volubill reveal that network operators' primary priority has shifted from managing network congestion to offering subscribers more control and higher quality of service (QoS) through enhanced mobile policy offerings, like LTE and self-care dashboards.

The research, Policy Management 2013: The Road to Virtualization & LTE, evaluated responses from 81 individuals at 56 network operators across all regions and types of providers. It was discovered that 75 percent of respondents consider introducing new services, price plans and options the primary purpose for policy management technologies in the next two years, with only 25 percent of respondents citing the management of network congestion as the priority. These findings indicate a marked switch in operators' intended use of policy management technologies from a reactionary tool to protect against the data deluge, to a proactive means for enhancing customer satisfaction through new services and charging options.

"Although more advanced uses of policy have been emerging lately, the magnitude of the changes in intended use of policy for the near future is striking," said Graham Finnie, Chief Analyst, Heavy Reading. "Many have come to realize that offering customers sophisticated, customized mobile policies is more fruitful than struggling to manage network bandwidth and sacrificing customer satisfaction in the process."

The research also revealed that approximately 70 percent of network operators currently enable or plan to enable users to monitor data volume usage via a policy-linked self-care app or dashboard, and nearly 54 percent plan to allow customers to change plan options directly via their device. By granting subscribers control over their own data usage, not only can bill shock be avoided, but subscribers are able to choose precisely how they would like to consume their mobile data. Simultaneously, operators can better manage network traffic and develop new service offerings by analyzing customer decisions made via these new portals.

"This trend toward more sophisticated, proactive policy management has been slowly gaining steam, but now we seem to have reached a real turning point in the mobile industry," said John Aalbers, CEO, Volubill. "Operators are increasingly taking a proactive stance when it comes to policy and with the help of our solutions, industry advancements like 4G LTE become not only a service enhancement for subscribers, but a revenue booster for operators."

Additional Key Findings:

• Nearly 87 percent of network operators are deploying, or plan to deploy, LTE

• 43 percent of network operators are upgrading or adding capacity to existing policy platforms to accommodate LTE

• 52 percent of network operators expect to manage WiFi Offload using a policy solution

• 54 percent of network operators currently, or plan to, use policy control to give certain content or applications priority, and charge subscribers accordingly

For queries on the "Policy Management 2013: The Road to Virtualization & LTE" research, please contact info@volubill.com

About Volubill
Volubill provides policy and charging solutions to service providers. With the exponential growth in the volume of mobile data traffic and increasing customer expectation, Volubill enables operators to maximize revenues, set customer expectation and deliver a personalized service experience. Volubill's VBS and VNS control bandwidth based on subscriber and service centric usage policies & quotas; offer real-time granular charging for any data, content, or messaging; and enable service providers to differentiate themselves through innovation. Volubill is global, with over 80 operator customers worldwide.

Further Information
Volubill
Martine Naughton, Head of Marketing
Email: martine.naughton@volubill.com
Tel: +44 7879 441304

March Communications
Nate Hubbell
Email: Volubill@marchpr.com
Tel: +1 617 960 9881