Share

Light Reading Podcasts
OSS/BSS market avoids pandemic slowdown
By 2027, analysts at Omdia expect the telco IT market to exceed $40 billion, up from $31 billion in 2021. James Crawshaw, practice leader for Omdia, joins the podcast to explain how the OSS/BSS market thrived during the pandemic, and why service providers are investing in improving automation and customer experience for their OSS/BSS platforms.
"It's not historically been a particularly high growth market, this OSS and BSS space is fairly mature," said Crawshaw. However, he explained that despite the pandemic forcing many to work from home, IT teams "had no trouble" implementing IT projects remotely.
"The other positive thing for the market has been that operators have really wanted to up their game in terms of making the customer experience more digital and more streamlined," he added.
The result of this market momentum still hasn't resulted in "hypergrowth," said Crawshaw. But, many OSS/BSS suppliers are now "looking at 8% growth in their business. And for many years, it was trundling along at 2%."
You can download an unedited transcript of the podcast here. If you want to skip around and listen, here are a few more things covered in this interview:
- Growth in telecom IT market for OSS/BSS (01:26)
- Fastest growth segments within the OSS/BSS market (05:43)
- Moving OSS/BSS applications to the public cloud (09:43)
- Recommendations for service providers (11:53)
- Impact of 5G on IT (14:19)
- Why tier 2 and 3 operators are underserved by the bigger OSS/BSS vendors (18:23)
- Whether hyperscalers will subsume the OSS/BSS market (19:59)
More episodes
View all episodes

The Divide: Why digital inclusion needs a new funding model
32:57||Season 6This week: Connect Humanity's Samantha Schartman and Mission Telecom's Mark Colwell discuss their 'Alt Funding Field Guide,' which explores a new approach to co-investing in digital adoption initiatives focusing on six sectors.
Policy, tech and convergence to collide at The Independent Show
50:50||Season 1NCTC's Lou Borrelli and ACA Connects' Grant Spellmeyer hop on the podcast to preview The Independent Show, set for July 26-29 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, which will dig into top policy issues and tech trends for small and midsized operators.
The Divide: SHLB's Joey Wender on the fight to save E-Rate
25:26||Season 6This week: Joey Wender, executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB), joins to discuss the FCC's 'war on the E-Rate program' and what advocates can do to help save it.
The Divide: NDIA's Angela Siefer on the fight to restore the Digital Equity Act
27:34||Season 6This week: NDIA's Angela Siefer returns to the podcast to discuss what's happened in the digital inclusion space since the Digital Equity Act was 'ended' by President Trump last year as well as ongoing efforts to restore funding.
The Divide: Gigi Sohn on how to defeat opponents of public broadband
28:42||Season 6This week: Gigi Sohn discusses how 'dark money' defeated a public broadband plan in Longmeadow, Mass., why anti-muni-broadband efforts work in some towns but not others and why grassroots buy-in is key to public broadband success.
The Divide: How permitting problems delay broadband builds
31:27||Season 6This week: Execs with Brightspeed, Ziply Fiber and CentraCom discuss the biggest problems with broadband permitting; how inconsistent timelines, requirements and costs cause deployment delays; and what reforms are most needed.
Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO braces for the AI and 6G era
34:31||Season 1Patrick Halley, the president and CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association, discusses the top trends in the industry and how AI and 6G are poised to come together.
The Divide: Blair Levin on 30 years of the Telecom Act and what must come next
34:59||Season 6Former FCC official Blair Levin joins the podcast to discuss BEAD program updates and how the federal government can best prepare for the future of connectivity and AI as we mark 30 years of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
The Divide: Carol Mattey on BEAD hope and hysteria, and stalled USF reform
38:34||Season 6This week: Former FCC official Carol Mattey joins the podcast to discuss the outcome of states' revised BEAD plans and what's next, as well as why she's not optimistic the Universal Service Fund will be reformed anytime soon.