Express lines to telecom service: Carriers look to portals for that elusive value-add

Telecommunications, Dec, 2001 by Ted McKenna

The kid behind the McDonald's counter asks customers if they want to supersize their order. Grocery stores stock checkout racks with magazines, candy, razors, lip balm--whatever can squeeze those few extra dollars from patrons. Call it suggestive selling or value-added service, it works with telecom as much as any other business.

Lacking the traditional storefront, telecom providers see Web sites as their means of establishing a more tangible connection to customers. All offer information on available services, Many also permit customers to sign up online for basic services like long distance, as well as view and pay bills over the Internet. Some let customers monitor the level of service they receive and report service problems.

Beyond that, though, telecom portals offer the potential to give service providers new sources of revenue through services such as video on demand, Internet gaming or streaming audio. If Wal-Mart can sell groceries in addition to trashcans and clothing, then telecom providers can certainly sell broadband services that so far have been offered mainly by individual Web sites.

"The guy who in the end will win is the guy who owns the customer, because you become the 7-Eleven of telecom," says Anil Uberoi, senior vice president of service provisioning company Xacct. "The service provider can make all sorts of deals with the content providers, because the one thing content providers don't have is access to those customers."

Going a step further, Ellacoya CEO Ron Sege, whose company offers both software and hardware for service providers to accept orders for and provision advanced telecom services, says Internet portals such as Yahoo! and Excite@Home, which are finding themselves unable to support operations through advertising, will either be out of business or owned by service providers that will use them as ready-made launch pads for providing premium services. Like AOL, the service provider portal could evolve into a Web site selling all types of services--not just basic telephony or Internet access (see Figure 1).

Customer Self-Service

Service providers boosting their portals' general capabilities are focusing first on functions related directly to their businesses. BellSouth's president of Internet services, Eric Small, says his company offers a range of AOL-type services, from quick access to Web sites devoted to news, health, fitness and movies to audio and video streaming and Internet gaming. But in the area of Web-based support services, BellSouth has concentrated on automating troubleshooting, using software from companies such as Visual Networks, Support.com and Broadjump.

"Half of our customers call with what is or appears to be some form of [Internet] connectivity issue, and the source of the problem can be anything from interaction between applications on the desktop to problems with servers on our network," Small says. "Help-desk costs are a significant component for service providers, so we look toward automated self-help as a money-saving tool."

Instead of help-desk reps asking phone-in customers a series of questions to determine the problem--a process fraught with human error--the process can be automated. Software deployed at BellSouth's 50 POPs in the southeastern United States (and downloaded by customers) can monitor desktop settings, network latency and other aspects of Internet connectivity to either warn customers and the service provider of potential connectivity problems or help BellSouth help-desk reps restore Internet connections more quickly. Such software does not solve all problems or eliminate entirely calls to help centers, but it lets the company tackle a good portion of connectivity problems through automation.

Among other telecom portals in operation, California utility Competisys--using software from Telution--offers a fiber-to-the-home service that lets customers sign up, receive and pay bills over the Internet. Aliant Telecom will use Atreus Systems software to let users of its Internet and broadband services turn on and modify services on their own, plus access account information through a secure single sign-on.

XO Communications offers online service fulfillment only for small-business Web hosting services. XO does not use the kind of automated diagnostic tools employed by BellSouth, but says it is working to develop them. Today the carrier's online self-service portal primarily offers bill presentment and payment, though it also lets customers view call detail records, report service problems and view what services they receive.

The ability to view order status is currently provided only to XO's indirect sales channel partners to keep their customers apprised of the status of services on order from the company without having to go through XO salespeople. Eventually, the carrier plans to extend such capability to regular business customers, XO Web marketing director Ira Gluck says.

Automating Provisioning

While carriers are investing heavily in telecom portals for billing and customer care, service fulfillment is trickier to handle through a Web site, according to RHK's director of telecom service fulfillment, Larry Goldman.