Telefonica Reconstructing VMS in 13 Latin American Countries

Background

Voice mail service (VMS) is a longstanding service and has been applied worldwide. If a receiver is unreachable or does not answer a call, the call can be forwarded to the system’s voice mailbox platform, and the caller can leave a message. Compared to a household answering machine, VMS provided by the telecom service platform is simpler and more convenient. Messages can be retrieved anywhere and there is no need to worry about the capacity of an answering machine.  Linked with the telecom core network, VMS can play free message prompts, and unnecessary charges for empty messages are avoided.

VMS has developed well in many countries and has become a basic supplementary service. However, with the emergence of communication services such as short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), pushmail, and instant messaging (IM) that offer better user experience, VMS has gradually been abandoned.

Spanish telecom giant Telefonica is fifth in the world in terms of market capitalization. It operates in 25 countries. As of December 2010, Telefonica had 287.6 million users. Faced with strong competitive pressure in many countries, Telefonica researched some of its existing service platforms and the fruits of this research have been favorable. VMS reconstruction is one of the highlights.

Difficulties Faced by Telefonica

Telefonica provides fixed and mobile voice, message, and data services in 13 Latin American countries. Among these services, VMS platform technology is outdated. In 2008, VIVO―Telefonica’s mobile operator in Brazil―had nearly 32 million users and as many as 40 VMS platforms. Each platform was based on TDM technology and accessed a nearby MSC, which led to high CAPEX. With a large number of MSC sites, annual OPEX was also large. The situation was similar in other countries.

With the emergence of new services, VMS gradually faded from people’s memories. Since network coverage in Latin America is patchy and mobile users are occasionally offline, VMS should have been widely used as a supplementary service. However, even in offline situations, the proportion of VMS mobile users was still less than 15 percent. Other communication modes such as SMS and email were being used. VIVO’s customers were saying that they seldom retrieved messages and message retrieval was complicated and not intuitive. The common perception was that communicating with a machine was unnatural and VMS was not real-time enough. These factors made users abandon VMS.

VMS Reconstruction

Telefonica started researching VMS platform reconstruction at the beginning of 2007. Brazil was chosen as the location for a reconstruction trial using ZTE’s next generation VMS platform. The trial turned out to be an unprecedented success. At the end of 2009, Telefonica began reconstructing platforms in 12 other Latin American countries.

■     Capacity expansion: Telefonica expanded capacity of the VMS platform to reduce the number of core sites and reduce CAPEX and OPEX. The 40 VMS platforms in Brazil were squeezed into four VMS platforms. Using large-capacity platforms, the cost of mandatory components for small platforms, rent of equipment rooms, and maintenance was significantly cut down. A highly reliable and widely available Linux platform was also employed to greatly reduce the training costs of maintenance personnel.

■     Virtualization: Telefonica virtualized the VMS platforms to meet the requirements of independent O&M. Although the user bases in small Central American countries such as Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, and Guatemala were not large, service operation in each country was separated and could not be integrated. A large centralized platform was therefore constructed using VMS platform virtualization technology. Several virtual VMS platforms can now run on this unified hardware and software platform in order to serve many countries. This addresses the needs of independent O&M and also saves platform construction costs.

■     IP-based integration: Telefonica adopted ZTE’s IP-based unified VMS platform to meet the needs of different access modes in different stages. In the 13 Latin American countries served by Telefonica, development of services is unbalanced. Some countries are IP-based while others are still in the TDM stage. To solve this problem, a unified, IP-based VMS platform was centrally deployed to support various access modes including narrowband TDM, broadband BICC, SIP/SIP-I, and H.323. As well as reducing the number of sites, the unified VMS platform also takes into account actual conditions of existing networks and is compatible with the evolution of the system. This greatly reduces the need for future investment.

■     OPEX savings: Telefonica adopted an advanced, energy-saving ATCA architecture to reduce operational expenses associated with equipment rooms, power consumption, and air conditioners. By introducing cutting-edge technologies, OPEX has been reduced by 25 percent.

By adopting these technical means, Telefonica has optimized its network and reduced TCO. Service investment per user has been cut by nearly 20 percent.

Introduction of New Services

Since the completion of its new large-capacity VMS platform, Telefonica has introduced new services. Telefonica is now tapping into potential services and increasing their cost effectiveness.

To deal with untimely VMS, low message retrieval rate, and complicated retrieval process (issues raised by users during research), Telefonica has introduced a virtual voice mail (VVM)—a service that allows users to see message prompts on their mobile phones and open messages. This makes the message retrieval process much more convenient, raises the message retrieval rate, and promotes VMS as a ways of leaving messages.

For the problem of communicating with machines, Telefonica introduced a “call me now” (CMN) service. If the call receiver is unreachable or busy, the system monitors the receiver and notifies the caller when it detects they are reachable. There is no need to leave a message; call completion rate and ARPU are increased accordingly.

For people who don’t answer calls from unfamiliar numbers, Telefonica introduced an electronic name card access technology. Caller information is displayed when the phone rings, and this also improves call completion rate.

Because VMS is a basic service with high penetration, it is also excellent for promotions. Telefonica has introduced a VMS advertising service, and has implanted ads into some notices. These prompt users to leave, retrieve, or receive messages and are a source of advertising revenue.

By cooperating with ZTE—the world’s leading VMS provider—Telefonica has achieved remarkable VMS reconstruction, increased its income, and reduced expenditure. Just like an old tree sprouting new branches, the VMS platform has been revitalized and is a new source of profit. When travelers go to Latin America and access Telefonica’s network, they hear pleasant message prompts. VMS has become a great asset for Telefonica to compete with local operators.