The Policy Summits   Sponsored by HP

When it comes to policy there are two very different schools of thought.

The first school is the one telecommunications companies have been familiar with all their lives. And we’ll be in the proverbial principal's office, so to speak, in Washington, DC, because that’s where this kind of policy—regulatory policy—is made.

Broadband Policy Explained

The second school is new. Its power to manage the network may be limited by regulation, but the potential to evolve and enhance the service capabilities of service providers is strong. This is Policy Control. It bridges the gap, said one analyst, between BSS and OSS by supporting the customer application of service controls based on customer preferences and charging limits.

Utilizing Policy Management to Support New Business Models

Policy management has taken on greater importance as service providers attempt to respond to rapid growth in mobile data services, support fair-usage policies and meet regulatory requirements for preventing bill shock. The evolution of the business environment has partly driven the rapid increase in vendors providing policy management solutions. The network infrastructure has evolved to support policy enforcement and quality of service mechanisms.

Real-time charging (RTC) vendors have adapted rating engines for policy management and active mediation to interact with policy enforcement platforms. They have the advantage that billing is a critical area for policy management, but some RTC vendors have been slow to recognize the importance of policy management beyond billing. Other approaches include policy management solutions targeted to real-time subscriber data management and traffic management.

This session will bring clarity to the types of policy management solutions available in the market and prepare service providers for new technologies such as LTE, EPC, and IMS that will support the services of the future.