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SIGMA CASE STUDY
BELL ALIANT
© 2016 Sigma Systems LP
CASE STUDY: BELL ALIANT
Growing at the Speed of Light
About Bell Aliant
Bell Aliant Inc. is a
communications company
serving various areas
throughout eastern Canada.
In Atlantic Canada, Bell
Aliant’s services include
high-speed internet access,
wireline telephone service
and IPTV cable television.
“
By deploying a 100 percent fibre-to-the-home
network, customers are now able to experience
internet and tv services to their full potential, with
the fastest internet upload and download speeds and
the best in-market TV product available to customers
throughout our region.
”
↘ I van
Toner
Chief Technology Officer
Bell Aliant
Executive Summary
Business Drivers
↗↗ Need to offer higher
bandwidth services
↗↗ Opportunity to
leverage unique cost
characteristics
↗↗ Need to reduce network
complexity
↗↗ Need to reduce
operating costs
In 2010, Bell Aliant announced its new FibreOp project, a full fibre to
the home (FTTH) network. With this major undertaking,
the Canadian service provider was challenged to scale the
deployment of VoIP, ultrabroadband and IPTV services, along with
customizable bundles over a new network infrastructure. To satisfy
an aggressive deployment timeline, Bell Aliant relied on Sigma
Systems to provide next-generation service fulfillment support,
augmenting its legacy OSS architecture. Service transformation
was a necessity to ensure automated order fulfillment and service
activation to seamlessly deliver new operational processes.
Business Challenges
Traditional telco service providers in North America have faced
increasing challenges from cable operators who provide bundled
triple-play services at attractive price points. The competition is
increasing further with rapidly changing consumer expectations
of video. Internet-based video platforms like Youtube, Netflix and
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© 2016 Sigma Systems LP
CASE STUDY: BELL ALIANT
Hulu are offering content and personalization
features that cater to customers, much of which
is provided free of charge. In order to meet
this competition, telco service providers must
regain their competitive edge by delivering a
video experience that matches or exceeds the
services provided by cable or OTT providers. Telco
services providers must upgrade their network
infrastructure to support new services. Bell
Aliant recognized this need and opted to upgrade
to the new FTTH architecture. This FTTH network
would support the following requirements:
↗↗ Need to offer higher bandwidth services
↗↗ Opportunity to leverage unique cost
characteristics
↗↗ Need to reduce network complexity
↗↗ Need to reduce operating costs
A key element in the strategy to ‘Grow Broadband’
was the introduction of a new IPTV platform
base on Microsoft Mediaroom. This strategy was
designed to improve the customer experience
and depended on a robust network and an
infrastructure that would ensure reliability and
performance.
The delivery of the IPTV service was essential
in that it would allow for a more interactive TV
experience with multi-screen applications over
TV, mobile devices and laptops. Next-generation
operators like Bell Aliant have recognized that the
market for IPTV has grown and that it provides
potential for a new revenue stream, increased
consumer satisfaction and loyalty. However,
operators will face service fulfillment challenges
such as integration with other services for
customizable bundles and control of operational
costs.
Implementation Hurdles
Back-office integration challenges rank high
among the chief hurdles telecom service
providers face. In the hybrid environment that is
expected to predominate for the next few years,
providers must be able to convert their existing
customers over to the more advanced IP delivery
method and premium entertainment services - all
without disrupting their current suite of services.
Back-office systems must be upgraded to
support, provision, activate and authorize far
more video services, devices and platforms than
ever before. Older legacy billing systems
must be updated to capture and process orders
for multiple video services, delivered over
multiple platforms and supplied by multiple
equipment vendors.
New challenges have emerged as providers offer
IPTV and other next-generations services. The
new infrastructure must be able to:
↗↗ Support multiple next-generation multimedia
services delivered by multiple content
delivery platforms, not just linear digital video
platforms
↗↗ Manage and activate new IP set-tops, home
gateways and other IP-enabled devices in the
home
↗↗ Integrate the new video platforms into their
existing back-office systems.
To successfully navigate the transformation to
new architectures that support IPTV and other
services, Sigma Systems recommended the
following steps:
↗↗ Consider replacing outmoded BSS systems to
cope with the far greater operational burdens
of next-gen video services
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© 2016 Sigma Systems LP
CASE STUDY: BELL ALIANT
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© 2016 Sigma Systems LP
CASE STUDY: BELL ALIANT
↗↗ Add new OSS service layer between existing
BSS layer and network elements to insulate
the billing systems from the complexities of
the new services
↗↗ Depend on an integrated OSS service layer
to manage customer entitlements effectively
across all of the video delivery platforms and
support activation of new video, voice and data
services.
The supporting service management
infrastructure is essential to manage of the
complexities of the new next-generation
environment, and ensure that interdependent
service bundles can be managed and delivered.
The introduction of a new layer will allow the
service provider to manage the migration to new
technology platforms while minimizing the impact
on existing BSS systems.
The Roll-Out Plan
Bell Aliant serves residential and business
customers in six Canadian provinces, including
Ontario and Quebec. The fibre project covers the
three maritime Canadian provinces, New
Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia,
including its capital city of Halifax. With
the project’s completion at the end of 2012, Bell
Aliant has addressed one-third of its service
area. Associated with FibreOp for ultra-broadband
Internet service, Bell Aliant offers Aliant TV
including over 200 digital TV channels, HD-TV and
PVR services. Bell Aliant also bundles triple
play services, which includes Home Phone VoIP
service.
As Bell Aliant extended the fibre network to
new cities, the operator recognized the need
to transform their back-office architecture into
one that was both reliable and scalable. Bell
Aliant selected Sigma Systems’ Telco Services
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Accelerator and Sigma Device Provisioning for
provisioning, activation and management of its
services for the FibreOp network. With the Sigma
Systems platform, Bell Aliant would be able to
eliminate service silos, enabling the delivery of
residential triple play bundles and SIP services
from a single OSS service fulfillment system.
The Service Transformation
Prior to deploying the Telco Services Accelerator
solution, broadband data services to residential
consumers were provisioned and activated with a
scriptbased solution developed in-house. With the
expected uptake of service and operational scale
requirements, the in-house solution was replaced
with the Sigma Systems Service Management
Platform to reduce manual activities, and improve
reliability and performance.
A key component in the service transformation
project included the migration to a new IPTV
support platform. Bell Aliant replaced their
existing IPTV platform with Microsoft Mediaroom
as an enhanced digital video service offering,
launched in 2011 along with the Telco Services
Accelerator.
The net result of the service transformation
project is that both data and IPTV service
fulfillment processes are 100 percent automated.
Service order-to-cash processes are now fully
integrated with the Sigma Service Management
Platform now connected to Bell Aliant’s CRM and
billing system.
The Telco Services Accelerator offers Bell Aliant
substantial operational cost savings by fully
automating order management, provisioning and
activation, including the provisioning of FTTH
broadband access equipment, VoIP softswitches
and IPTV middleware.
© 2016 Sigma Systems LP
This back-office transformation has given Bell Aliant
the ability to go to market faster, roll out the tripleplay bundle, and effectively scale their IT operations
in-line with consumer up-take. Leading industry
vendors supported by the Telco Services Accelerator
solution include integration to Alcatel-Lucent (with
FTTxGPON), GENBAND (with VoIP) and Microsoft
(with IPTV). The next phase of this deployment will
include automated OSS fulfillment support for SIP
trunking services.
Sigma Device Provisioning provides Bell Aliant a
robust, automated device provisioning platform that
goes well beyond basic device provisioning. This
advanced solution incorporates flexible service
creation templates while providing scalable
performance, robust security, superior
reliability and a distributed architecture that
provides centralized views and control of all SIP/IP
Phone devices.
The Business Benefits
As of August 2011, Bell Aliant’s FibreOp network
passed 294,000 homes and businesses and is on
track to reaching 600,000 by the end of 2012. New
subscribers are added each quarter.
This expanded customer base is providing increased
revenues and profits which is in turn allowing
for future growth. The deployment of Sigma’s
solutions now provides a strong platform for growth
with:
framework, enabling faster time to market
through improved OSS to BSS interoperability
↗↗ Greatly reducing the complexity of provisioning
and managing multiple types of SIP and IP
phones for future business VoIP services.
With the capabilities of a full FTTH network, Bell
Aliant is now offering the fastest Internet in their
service area with maximum speeds of 170 MBps
down and 30 MBps up, including in their most
competitive urban market of Halifax. In addition,
customers are being offered more advanced
services than ever before, including IPTV services
and associated HD content for the first time. Bell
Aliant now effectively competes with a major cable
operator in its serving area that crosses many
provinces.
Conclusion
Service providers like Bell Aliant must continue to
invest in the delivery of enhanced video services in
order to survive in an increasingly competitive multiscreen universe. An astute service provider can
launch to market quicker, with a lower total cost of
ownership, and reduced risk by engaging with Sigma
as a customer enablement partner. Sigma has the
software platform, the relevant domain experience
and a strong professional services team to help
drive your business plans to market.
↗↗ Built-in support for Alcatel-Lucent ONTs,
GENBAND softswitches and Microsoft
Mediaroom for IPTV, reducing time to market
↗↗ Fully integrated service order-to-activation
processes, with integration with existing CRM
and billing system
↗↗ Compliance with the TM Forum’s standards for
Order Management in a next-generation OSS
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© 2016 Sigma Systems LP
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© 2016 Sigma Systems LP