Network as a Service (NaaS)
Today's communications market presents arguably the richest potential for network operators since the beginning of the mass mobile market in the 1990s. The proliferation of the Internet and mobile broadband has sparked the creativity of thousands of application developers worldwide eager to deliver their products and services into the waiting hands of willing end-users.
This burgeoning "open" movement in mobile has so far focused largely on the handset, due to the success of the iPhone, the Apple App Store, and the push by handset providers to replicate that model and alter their role in the value chain by becoming service providers. Additionally, web companies have also entered the value chain and are pushing mobile operators to become bit pipes.
Now, leading operators, faced with competition from multiple directions, are turning their attention towards opening their networks and are embracing the concept of the "Network as a Service" (NaaS), exposing their capabilities for consumption by application providers on-demand, to enable new "2-sided"; business models. With NaaS, the operator's network and billing capabilities become marketable resources with multiple features that are attractive and readily available to enterprises, web service providers and application developers.
Aepona's core product offering, the award-winning Universal Service Platform (USP), plays a significant role in enabling the NaaS business model. Since its recent acquisition of Valista, a provider of payment and settlement solutions to mobile and broadband operators, the Universal Service Platform comprises all of the capabilities required for operators and cross-network service providers to implement a commercial, scalable NaaS offering. No other company, large or small, possesses the same combination of market experience, thought leadership and platform capabilities.
Essentially, NaaS involves the Telco opening network capability APIs and payments APIs to Application Service Providers (ASPs), enterprises and merchants, supported by an appropriate management and business infrastructure.
Telco 2.0 Two Sided Business Model model
Mobile Cloud Computing