Although you might think that telecommunications companies are these large businesses that have optimized all their operations, you would be surprised by the number of inefficiencies. Despite spending more money on infrastructure and other assets than any other industry, telcos still have suboptimal procedures.
In most of the cases, these issues are either operational, structural, or architectural. Many operators struggle with network technology, as it requires continuous updates. Even those who regularly update their software are slaves to the quick innovations in the field.
In the following article, we’ll go through some of the biggest inefficiencies operators face. Keep in mind that these aren’t isolated problems. Instead, they are frequently observed issues that even large carriers face.
1. The Problem of Signaling Bloat
Over the last several years, telecommunications businesses have had to deal with a steadily increasing volume of signaling traffic. As networks have expanded and services have become more complex, so have subscribers’ needs.
Unfortunately, most carriers didn’t adapt well to the change. One of the biggest issues was measuring the incoming traffic, with many telcos struggling to gain full visibility. Among others, they have trouble evaluating legitimate subscriber activity, retry storms triggered by earlier failures, traffic generated by misconfigured network elements, or the quantity of attack traffic.
Due to a lack of visibility, operators struggle to determine the realistic traffic and what needs to be processed. This results in added latency, unnecessary capacity consumption, and “fake” congestion.
To tackle the issue, many operators have introduced filtering at the interconnect boundary and signaling analytics. This has led to better traffic classification and prioritization, while also helping them determine what should be discarded. Furthermore, with the right number portability solution, carriers can now enable direct routing to prevent wasting network capacity.
2. Lack of a Single Source of Truth
Data fragmentation is a common issue, not only for telecommunications businesses but also for all other large organizations. The particular issue telcos face is running dozens of network management systems, each with its unique features. Every single database is configured differently and uses different data formats, resulting in conflicting information.
For example, telcos’ databases feature different software versions, different status flags, and different topology representations. When a conflict arises, engineers are forced to reconcile data or to determine which source to prioritize.
The fragmentation issue can create a ripple effect across the company, resulting in increased operational costs. Having multiple sources of truth leads to slower troubleshooting, inaccurate capacity planning, and higher change management risk.
As a result, configuration conflicts often lead to network incidents. The best way to address the issue is by introducing a single comprehensive platform where you can store all your data, minimizing the risk of errors.
3. Dependence on Manual Processes
As technology moves more and more toward artificial intelligence and automation, early adopters are the ones who take market stranglehold. Unfortunately, even the most proactive, forward-thinking companies utilize numerous manual processes. From fault correction to provisioning changes and change request validation, many tasks are handled by the human staff.
The problem with manual procedures is that they often lead to errors. They make daily operations much slower while lacking the scalability that automated solutions offer. As we transition toward concepts such as edge computing, network slicing, and dynamic resource allocation, it becomes much harder for the workforce to keep up with the new requirements.
Although companies feel at ease utilizing old, proven processes, many of them fall into the trap of inertia. Despite understanding they have to modernize, carriers usually struggle with cross-functional coordination that prioritizes against more visible service delivery commitments.
4. Underutilized Routing Intelligence and Interconnect
Interconnect routing is an important telecommunications process that determines call and data session handoffs between carriers. Yet, despite its relevance, many operators pay little to no attention to it. This is why many operators still use long-obsolete bilateral agreements and static routing tables that haven’t been updated for years.
In other words, many telcos haven’t done anything to improve their traffic patterns, network topology, and commercial relationships for several years. The end result is suboptimal interconnect traffic leading to latency, unnecessary transit costs, and avoiding preferred routes that would dleiever higher efficiency.
The good news is that the operators who want to improve their workflows have incredible routing intelligence at their disposal. Today’s diameter routing agents and session border controllers do excellent job of making real-time decisions based on the current network conditions, cost parameters, and quality metrics.
Those who haven’t introduced this technology commonly suffer from major operational inefficiencies. Besides delivering lower value for their customers, these telcos pay more for interconnect than required. With the right infrastructure, telcos would not only improve their positioning on the market, but also future-proof the company for years to come.
5. Disregarding Security Vulnerabilities
Even though the security technology has improved immensely in the last decade, many companies still use obsolete solutions. Vulnerabilities that exploit Diameter and SS7 protocols, in particular, have been considered one of the biggest causes of unexpected losses for carriers.
Nevertheless, many operators keep relying on interconnect surface with incomplete firewall rule sets, inadequate filtering, and limited monitoring features. The reason why these operators don’t upgrade usually lies in the combination of costs, complexity, and partner reliance.
Despite all these perceived issues, modern telcos shouldn’t save money on security software. Regulatory fines and reputation damage alone exceed the investment they would make on the advanced solutions. Furthermore, not having a comprehensive security suite would lead to denial-of service attacks and traffic manipulation that would adversely affect network performance.
Protecting Your Network for the Future
Carriers have to be serious about their network inefficiencies, always looking for ways to improve performance and user experience. Through proactive monitoring and modern software, many of these issues can be patched. In fact, investing in better solutions and analytics usually outweighs any costs that an operator would have to consider.