- 統合課金の世界市場は2013年に総計23億ドル市場となり、2018年には53億ドル市場に成長するとInfoneticsは予測している。
- 世界的統合課金マーケットに占めるアジア太平洋地域の割合は、2013年には50%に到達し、そして2018年までには、世界の残る全地域で統合課金に費やされる金額の合計よりも更に多くが、アジア地域で支払われるであろうとInfoneticsは予測している。
- 統合課金は事業者に階層的サービス提供、ロケーションベースの価格設定、オーバー・ザ・トップ(OTT)コンテンツ・パッケージ、sponsored data(コンテンツ・プロバイダがスポンサー料を支払う事でデータ通信をユーザーが無料で利用できるサービス)を可能にする。
- 企業向け市場でのビジネスチャンスをものにしようと考えている通信事業者は、法人顧客が利用可能なサービス範囲と機能を拡大する為の手段として、統合課金に投資している。
- 通信事業者はネットワーク機能仮想化(NFV)環境で機能する統合課金ソリューションへの需要を強めているが、現段階ではほとんど実現してはいない。
Network expansions driving convergent charging market, dominated by Asia Pacific Boston, MASSACHUSETTS, June 10, 2014-Telecom market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest Convergent Charging Software and Services report, which tracks charging software built for communications providers to handle multiple dimensions of convergence, including convergence across payment methods, service types, and access networks, along with related consulting, integration, and managed services. ANALYST NOTE "Much of the recent growth in the convergent charging market has been in expansion of existing deals, with operators buying license capacity and related services to support additional subscribers and new lines of business," notes Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence at Infonetics Research. "There is a lot of momentum in Asia Pacific, driven by interest in monetizing LTE in China and other more developed countries, as well as intelligent network replacement activity and rapid subscriber growth in emerging markets. We expect Asia to continue to dominate the market for at least the next five years." CONVERGENT CHARGING MARKET HIGHLIGHTS
- The global convergent charging market totaled $2.3 billion in 2013, and is forecast by Infonetics to grow to $5.3 billion in 2018
- Asia Pacific's share of the global convergent charging market passed the 50% mark in 2013, and by 2018, Infonetics expects more will be spent on convergent charging in Asia than in all the other world regions combined
- Convergent charging allows operators to offer service tiers, location-based pricing, over-the-top (OTT) content packages, shared data plans, and sponsored data
- Operators looking to capitalize on opportunities in the enterprise market are investing in convergent charging as a way to expand the range of services and features available to their business customers
- Increasingly being sought out by operators are convergent charging solutions that can be deployed in a network functions virtualization (NFV) environment, though few are actually doing so at this point