Flexibility, agility, speed, responsiveness: time and again we hear and read these words in discussions surrounding the future of the mobile operator. Often outplayed in service development by internet innovators that run free of network ownership, operators nonetheless have to bear the weight of the traffic—and the brunt of end user resentment when, for whatever reason, service falls short.

The pace of innovation has increased by an order of magnitude and yet operators are still running large numbers of legacy systems in their BSS environment that were designed for a different generation—both in technical and human terms.

Their limitations in respect to those key attributes mentioned above have much to do with their BSS environments—and the elimination of silos, integration of disparate systems and game-changing transformational upgrades are permanent fixtures on the operator’s agenda.

How operators address these issues will have a significant impact on their future successes and there some big questions need answering.

This document, produced by Telecoms.com in conjunction with Redknee draws on the previously unreleased results of a survey conducted at the beginning of 2014 by Telecoms.com Intelligence. The survey sought the opinions of more than 60 operator executives from around the world on requirements for BSS evolution as the industry consolidates its move to an LTE world.