New Yankee Group Report Examines Future Of Wireless Industry Architectures - Industry Trend or Event

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, August 6, 2001

Sometime in 2002, you could hear this advertisement: "Welcome to the new wireless communications industry, replete with next-generation wireless, Internet, and high-speed broadband services . . . ." While market pundits have been discussing the brave new world of wireless for several years, they have just recently begun to focus on the need for new wireless billing solutions that will support the myriad new services and applications.

A new Yankee Group Report, "The Shifting Wireless Billing Environment," examines some of the key issues involved in moving the wireless industry from today's first- and second-generation network architectures into the future, and states the Yankee Group's belief that billing solutions may have a significant impact on whether this occurs.

According to David Berndt, director of the Yankee Group's Wireless/Mobile Technologies research and consulting practice, "Today's wireless billing platforms focus on circuit-switched traffic. Operators must now implement solutions that will support packet-based traffic. And beyond this, they may need even more sophisticated platforms that are `aware' of the value of the packet-based traffic and can bill the customer accordingly."

The Yankee Group expects continued investment in wireless billing systems (in the form of proprietary system upgrades and customized development services from system integrators that may or may not include third-party software).