By Tara Seals

As operators worldwide build out the IP-enabled, broadband networks to feed a new consumption model that revolves around connected devices, mobility, video, third-party applications and content from a variety of sources, they find themselves with a rapidly shifting value chain. The operator has always had a relationship with the house, business or a specific device; going forward the relationship will be more personalized, directly with the end-user.

The ability to maintain customer engagement across networks and devices gives rise to new business models and revenue opportunities. A wide array of new frontiers awaits, from targeted advertising to new types of services that leverage network intelligence in tandem with third-party innovation; from brand-new dynamic billing/marketing models in emerging markets to rolling out TV Everywhere content strategies in developed ones; from M2M to more specific vertical opportunities.

But none of that is easy to put into place, and having to cede the primary customer relationship to over-the-top content providers, applications providers and device manufacturers is entirely a possibility for operators going forward. How to avoid a future as a dumb pipe is the subject of Friday’s panel discussion at B/OSS Live!, “Chain Chain Chain, Securing a Place in the Delivery, Revenue and Value Chains" (National Harbor 2, 11 – 11:45 a.m.).

Panelists include Shira Levine, directing analyst for next-gen OSS and policy at Infonetics; Arturo Pereyra, director of worldwide SDP product marketing at Oracle Corp.; and Monica Ricci, director of product marketing at Intec Billing, now part of CSG Systems. Each will bring a unique view to the table on the changing ecosystem and carrier roles within it, ensuring a lively discussion.

Levine will focus on using subscriber data as a potential differentiator and how operators can or might already be exposing data to third parties. She’ll also discuss the need to overcome concerns around privacy and how to avoid compromising their relationship with the subscriber. Pereyra will talk about two-sided business models, specifically around SDPs and telco app store initiatives. Ricci will look at the broadening of the types of services service providers are offering, and the increasing focus on the third parties who will help them deliver those services and the management of the relationship between third parties and consumers.

In many cases, it’s a matter of offering interesting, personalized bundles, and of understanding the services that people want to use. It’s using information inside the network to craft targeted advertising and promotions strategies. It’s partnering effectively with the OTT players. And it’s implementing tiered and premium pricing where warranted, with plenty of carrots in place for users to take to higher-value packages.

In any case, carriers will not be able to avoid evolution. A new report from Informa Telecoms & Media predicts Internet users will upload and download a total of 1.2 million petabytes of data per year by 2015 – seven times more than we did just last year. And video will continue to get bigger, accounting for more than half of all Internet traffic by that time. Cisco Systems in its latest Visual Networking Index is even more bullish, predicting that by 2015, global IP traffic will reach an annual run rate of 966 exabytes per year, or eight times more than all IP traffic generated in 2008. That’s equivalent to the streaming of 28 million DVDs per hour. The mobility piece of this will continue to be critical. And it’s all creating a playground for those who would look to disintermediate the operator’s role.

“It has happened to such an extent that for the past few years, there is no question that the operators are behind, but I think the things we are seeing shows they are doing their best to catch up," said Ricci. “They aren’t just rolling over and playing dead. So there is no question the players that have emerged have an advantage right now and are going to do everything they can to maintain and grow that advantage, but operators will do what they need to do to stake out their own role in the value chain."

Levine added that there is a real danger also in an area few consider: The device manufacturers are well-positioned to preempt the role that operators could be taking, particularly when it comes to location information and even subscriber data. “Look at what Apple has been doing with subscriber information – even though they got dinged for it, she said. “There is a real danger there."

Each panelist will give a quick overview of their take on the market, but the bulk of the time will be a Q&A discussion of the back-office implications of all of this. Some of the topics covered will be:

1. What are the biggest assets that carriers have in terms of maintaining a customer-facing role in the long-tail value chain, and how can they best leverage them?
2. Much has been made of the two-sided business model, but I’m not sure operators fully understand how to make it work for them. What’s your take on an appropriate strategy?
3. The walled garden model has been seen as anathema, as people remember the days of wireless “content decks" that offered a terrible user experience and hampered the adoption of applications. But the Apple model is a walled garden, and arguably an extremely successful one that has done more for apps adoption than anything else in the market. Are there lessons that carriers can take from this?
4. Speaking of Apple, and new entrants, and new competitors, what is the single biggest evolution that carriers need to be positioning for going forward?
5. Hybridization is a hot topic – working with OTT in a revenue-share model. There’s a certain sense of, “if you can’t beat them, join them." What are some models that work? What are some that don’t?
6. Where does Net neutrality fit into this whole picture?
7. There’s a lot of talk about operators leveraging the network information – subscriber data, location, APIs to billing information, etc. – in order to provide a personalized relationship with customers that the likes of Google and Skype simply cannot. Thoughts?
8. What is the best way that a carrier can avoid becoming a dumb-pipe operator?
9. Is being a dumb-pipe operator really that bad of a thing if you consider the M2M explosion and the connected-device model (like Kindle)?
10. Operators need to think about innovative bundles, and transactional models that take into account consumer use of, say, Facebook. What are some new billing approaches that can help them in their quest to hang onto their place in the value chain?
11. In the new communications landscape, advertising is a big piece of the monetization puzzle. Operators are looking at strategies like recommendation engines for content discovery and concierge-like dynamic ad serving. Why would an advertiser want to work with an operator? Is that a difficult case to prove out?
12. Devices are a key piece of the ecosystem. People are often more loyal to devices than their carriers. What value does a service provider give that end-users can’t get from a device manufacturer?

There’s no question these are critical issues today. “I don’t think any operator around the world is really the poster child for having overcome this threat," said Pereyra.