Battling Telecom Industry Complexity

Alan Black: In the seven to eight years since you launched the Concept of One at AT&T, the level of complexity in the entire telecom industry has probably seen several orders of magnitude increase in complexity -- especially when you consider the proliferation of devices and the advance of multi-vendor networks. So if you don't have a way to corral your systems effectively, your costs will explode.

Eslambolchi True, and if you think we are in crisis mode today, consider what will happen tomorrow. Because just around the corner is IPv6 which enables you to attach IP addresses to trillions of sensors. Eventually, automobiles and medical systems will all be sensor based.

Now how would you like to go in for hip surgery and find out you're having heart surgery instead? When those days arrive, a bad database of record will spell disaster.

And the danger is much nearer at hand than you think. The new LTE wireless technology that Ericsson is introducing delivers tremendous network speeds that drive all sorts of mobile applications.

However, none of these applications is going to make money unless your database of record is accurate.