Two million U.S. households, representing 6 percent of those online, already have broadband connections. As a result of this tremendous market opportunity, as well as deregulation and technological breakthroughs, cable operators are reengineering their overall service delivery platform, from the redesign of the physical network to the creation of new pricing models. However, in spite of the incredible amount of money being spent on upgrading or building new cable infrastructure, the operational support systems lag behind.
Advanced services are often Internet-based and simply require a higher level of flexibility.
While this move to a standards-based approach lowers costs, increases reliability, and facilitates the rapid deployment of new services, it also creates a new set of subscriber management and billing requirements. Requirements for Delivering Advanced Services Consumer demand for advanced cable services is changing the landscape of the cable market and propelling cable broadband to the forefront. It is a tenable position, however, and a variety of subscriber management and billing requirements for delivering these advanced services must be satisfied. As mentioned earlier, advanced services require a higher level of flexibility. This results in missed revenue-generation opportunities.