This is how you can be a successful ISP in Pakistan

Internet penetration in Pakistan has surged dramatically in recent years and will continue to do so even though there is no well-defined broadband strategy in the country yet.

Due to high service demands, service providers are pushing the limits to provide internet service regardless of access medium i.e. fiber, DSL, public Wi-Fi, Mobile, WIMAX etc. and most of them are dealing with high churn due to mismanagement of end-user quality of service experience. At the same time, the number of devices connected and services in home are constantly growing thereby making home network more complex.

Today, the end-users expect plug and play, easy to connect and high performance everywhere in home with any device. There are fixed connected devices but the significant growth is seen especially in Wi-Fi enabled devices. The average home has around 8 devices connecting to the Internet, where emails and tweets are just a few services low prioritized compared to IPTV and online games.

Due to the abundance of service providers in urban region, the end-user has plenty of options to choose between different service providers. The end-user in most cases is never happy with any of the service provider due to various obvious reasons. For instance, some offers better speed but has connection instability & support related issues. Others have high lead times to install and activate the service or have complicated installation process with long delays. Wi-Fi speed and coverage issues due to the low grade end-user equipment (CPE’s) provided by the service provider to the end-use as part of the broadband subscription package.

Just do Google search on service provider reviews in Pakistan and there you see mix of feedbacks. The initiative from smartchoice.pk for benchmarking broadband service providers is definitely a remarkable step and a push to the service providers to innovate and compete.

We keep aside the core network challenges that almost every service provider encounters in service delivery lifecycle. The service providers delivered equipment to the end user’s premises; home gateway or residential gateway is actually the operator’s service representative in the subscribers’ home. It has been observed that almost every internet provider in Pakistan is offering same residential gateway HW model or from the same company (vendor) or at least from one country of production. The suppliers from other regions with advanced software and device capabilities are unable to sell solutions to the local service providers in Pakistan due to price pressure, geopolitical and bureaucracy related issues.

Service providers in regions where the internet penetration is high with advanced services, cannot consider rolling out broadband services without solid & stable home gateway equipment with superior Wi-Fi and coverage capabilities as well as TR-069 ACS server for the management of such devices for zero touch provisioning, remote firmware & service upgrades, monitoring and helpdesk. Without these two items, it is a lost business case.

The industry is moving fast continuously, introducing new standards that result in new services and devices and therefore service provider deployment strategy requires full fleshed managed solution to be able to offer future-proof and best in class service delivery to the end user.

Top three values brought to the service provider business by having TR-069 managed carrier grade CPE are:

Residential Gateway:

1. Carrier grade equipment
Solid, stable and high-performance customer premises equipment defending service provider’s brand image.

2. Connectivity everywhere
With superior Wi-Fi technology integrated, allowing connectivity in every corner of home.

3. Feature-Rich
Support for advanced security, multimedia and storage features that make broadband experience ever pleasant.

TR-069 ACS:

1. Reducing Cost:
Minimize time and effort needed for service activation and initial subscriber provisioning.

2. Streamline operations:
Simplify the business process by integrating service activation and support system with internal order management system.

3. Operational Excellence
Subscriber centric tools allow you to assure a best-in-class support to your subscriber by that reducing churn and increasing installed base.