Assurance: A Past, Present, and Future Perspective

摘要

Several years ago, communications services were all about connectivity—enabling one person to talk with another. Network integrity and network functionality received all of the attention, as carriers were determined to keep their networks operating effectively and efficiently. The customer was often viewed as a burden to successful network management. The emergence of competition in the mid-1980s started an evolution toward customer assurance as technologies drove the introduction of new services and consumers began to have choices about who or what was providing their communications needs. Today's world of improving technologies, evolving business strategies, changing regulations, competition, and complex service offerings are finally delivering on the longtime promise for customer-centric services that support a variety of customer needs. New providers, in addition to current operators, are enabling consumers to have even more choices, especially the choices now coming from the customer-savvy virtual network operator (VNO) market.