Damn..this industry is complex. It feels like it just shouldn’t be this hard, right?
You know what? This interconnect voice industry is complex. Why is that? I mean, yeah..it’s a razor thin margin business with massive transaction volume and massive data management requirements. But a lot of industries deal with these type of operational attributes - think of the financial industries, credit cards, stock markets, etc. Why is this interconnect voice marketplace so hard!!!?? It feels like it should be a little easier.
Well, the barriers to entry/exit in the interconnect voice industry aren’t anywhere near the same levels as those other industries. Companies can come and go in the interconnect voice world pretty regularly, and they do. Also, those industries have much tighter and more uniform regulations compared to the interconnect voice market which makes it easier to build support systems because there is greater uniformity amongst the players in the market. Compare that to the interconnect voice marketplace where there is loose uniformity and almost a “laissez-faire” approach to the market. Interconnect voice markets have long blended tight regulatory control with wild-west grey market entrepreneurs. That means there’s a lot of “dynamism” in the market which makes it hard to settle on a standard and have all the players conform to the standard.
As such, creating OSS & BSS tools to support the market is incredibly complex because no two carriers are “exactly” alike. There’s a lot of congruency, but each wants their way of doing business to be supported. It’s crazy because it is by and large a pure commodity marketplace and, typically, it benefits the entire market if everyone conforms to the similar way of operating. But because of the low barriers to exit and entry, the lax regulatory controls, and non-uniformity of operations, it is difficult to operate predictably in the industry. Difficult, but not impossible.
Solution providers, like GCS and our peers, are constantly developing new and better ways to manage this portion of a carrier’s business. As a result, we are slowly chipping away at the complexity and making it easier for carriers to operate. It’s still harder than it should be, but it is getting easier… and that’s why we are here...to help make voice profitable.