Putting the Spotlight on Latin America

By Vitus, Regional Sales Director, Latin America for InfoVista

Don’t assume that the Latin American telecom market is behind the times because providers haven’t deployed the latest technologies in every instance as quickly as in the U.S. and Europe. In actuality, nothing could be further from the truth.

In the ten years that I’ve worked with OSS/BSS solutions in Latin America (LATAM), what I’ve seen is just some very smart management. LATAM operators are on par technology-wise and knowledge-wise with any region in the world, but instead of being in the lead they take advantage of a less-mature market to allow for a little time-gap which in turn provides them the opportunity to smartly pick and chose from available technologies based on the services that make sense for implementation in their market at that particular moment. Thus when a new opportunity arises, these providers are more than capable of leapfrogging to whatever technology best addresses their market need. Now, with the demand for data services from corporate customers, LATAM providers are deploying 3G and LTE IP-based networks as fast as anyone in the world.

So what are these wireless operators most interested in hearing about in the year ahead? The ones that I’ve been speaking with are looking to have one big question answered, “How can I provide end-to-end quality of experience for my customers?”

The answer I give to operators is this, “You’re going to ask that question of all the multiple network vendors you already have or will have, and you’re going to find that getting the true end-to-end visibility required to ensure QoE will be a challenge.  So why not ask the company that has deployments with 80 percent of the world’s largest service providers?” Providing end-to-end service assurance is a core competency for InfoVista.  We are the one unique provider that has the solutions to cover infrastructure and applications end-to-end, data center to IP RAN. We already help operators worldwide tackle the challenges that LATAM service providers face as they endeavor to provide full service assurance and quality of experience.

I think there are a number of important issues that operators in LATAM will need to consider in order to succeed in the competitive market environment, including:

• The convergence of wireline and wireless business lines to reduce operational costs and how to solve the complex organizational, operational, and architectural challenges that it presents
• Why providers that have their sole focus on infrastructure are missing the bigger picture
• How using operational tools and information already available to directly create new revenue opportunities will be the game changer for successful providers
• The challenges presented by technology convergence (such as NGN, FTTx and LTE) and how to solve them, and
• Looking to the future, how will the trend toward the cloud impact the LATAM marketplace?

To discuss questions like these, find some answers to them, and talk about other influential trends that will shape the telecom marketplace in Latin America and other regions, we continue our expert blog series: Spotlight on Service Assurance: Latin America, featuring guest blogger Phil Anderson, Technology Analyst for Business News Americas.

I am very delighted that InfoVista is helping to shine the light on the dynamic telecom market in Latin America and I am sure that this series of blog posts will share valuable insights for providers, whether they are located in a LATAM market or elsewhere.