Aepona (a global provider of telecoms software products and services) today announced its acquisition of Valista (provider of payment, settlement and service lifecycle management solutions). The acquisition, which comes into effect immediately, creates a single entity, operating under the Aepona brand, with a complete solution for the “Network as a Service” (NaaS) business model now being embraced by Telcos globally.
With the NaaS model, mobile and broadband operators treat their network and informational assets as marketable resources that can be made available to third party application developers, upstream service providers and Enterprises. These organizations can then enhance their applications, services and business processes with Telco capabilities such as voice, location, messaging, profile, billing and so on.
The new Aepona offers Telcos an end-to-end solution for the NaaS model, including Open APIs towards core network capabilities, 3rd party relationship management, monetization, billing mediation and settlement, and service lifecycle management. Following the acquisition, Aepona’s client list now includes some of the world’s largest mobile and broadband operators in North America, EMEA and Asia.
“For some time now, operators have recognized the need to adopt a more collaborative approach to working with organizations such as Enterprises and web-based service providers”, said Al Snyder, CEO of Aepona. “The rise in Over-the-Top services has made them realize that in order to compete effectively, they need to leverage their assets to the fullest extent possible, and this means opening up these assets towards third parties in a secure, controlled and billable manner.”
“The move towards openness initially focused on the device side, but over the past year attention has shifted towards the network side”, continued Mr Snyder. “Aepona has secured several contracts with Tier 1 operators to implement their Open Network API programs, but until now we have lacked the monetization and settlement capabilities that are required for a true NaaS offering. With the acquisition of Valista, we can now offer Telcos the means to monetize their Open API initiatives, as well as offering third parties a convenient way to bill end-users for their services.”
I expect we’ll see a lot more consolidation like this over the coming months/years, as the fight for the layers above core network intensifies…