Although Ericsson might be taking the headlines for its multi-billion managed service deals with the likes of 3 and, now, Vodafone Netherlands (www.mobileeurope.co.uk/2052), Nokia too has around 38 managed service customers.
To support these activities, and address the market from a services, as much as a network, approach, it has launched a hosting service line, within its overall managed services business unit.
Patrick Sallner, the man in charge of the new division, said that hosting equipment for operators would help them develop new services at lower risk, and also get to market quicker.
“In the past six to nine months there has been a change in sentiment, and now operators seem more open to the idea. The benefits are it allows them to launch services quicker, and removes the uncertainty of how operators are going to fund that investment. We see any operator bringing a new service to market, as well as smaller operators looking to widen their service portfolio, as a natural fit for service hosting.’
Nokia will host services in hosting centres based in each continent. Its European hosting centre is based in Austria, partly because mobilkom is an early customer, but also because it is a central site with good availability.
“Having one server element from which we can serve multiple operators bring scale and means we can leverage that to make it profitable. Effectively operators share the unit costs.,” Sallner said.
In terms of potential services that Nokia sees as attractive on a hosting model, Sallner mentioned push to talk, push email and IMS services, which operators can trial on hosted IMS compatible network elements. Another idea is to host the device management system operators might need to provision handset settings over the air.
Sallner said operators would need to pay a set-up fee, covering integration between the hosted server and their billing and provisioning systems. Fees after that will be volume based, with a minimum monthly fee, based on a year or 18 month contract.
Sallner added that hosting services for an operator is a good way for Nokia to get an “in” with a client who has previously been loyal to another supplier. It may also lead to a larger managed services deal, he agreed
For the time being Nokia hosting centres will only host Nokia services, Sallner said.
Perhaps in the future if Nokia saw a gap in its portfolio or there was strong customer demand, the it might consider hosting third party services, Sallner said.