In both the telecom industry and the satellite (NTN / non-terrestrial) domain, digital transformation promises agility, automation, and smarter customer experiences. But often, providers are still trapped by fragmented backoffice systems.
Different teams, different tools, different names for the same offers… It’s chaos disguised as “process.” And when your billing, catalog, inventory, assurance, management tools, order systems, etc. live in silos, three things inevitably follow:
Sounds familiar?
In this post, we’ll explore how fragmentation shows up in telecom and satellite operations, real-world evidence of its pain and how the future looks like from where we are standing, under the lens of our OSS solutions and digital transformation in the telecom industry and space.
It’s simple, when systems don’t talk to each other, companies face:
As TM Forum emphasizes, breaking down operational silos is essential for service providers to compete in the digital era. That principle underlies many of its reference models and best practices around service and data integration.
Reinforcing this idea, in her keynote at Mobile World Congress, Margherita Della Valle, CEO of Vodafone, warned that: “Fragmentation in the EU telco sector causes waste of billions of euros …” She also stressed the need for a unified regulatory framework: “we need one European rulebook, not 27 national rulebooks.” (Europa Press)
This critique aligns closely with what we see in practice: operators often maintain separate stacks for inventory, catalog, provisioning, and monitoring. Each system has its own data model; updates rarely propagate reliably across them. The result: when a customer orders a new plan, that request might traverse five or more systems; and any mismatch causes friction, delay, or failure.
For instance:
The upshots? Longer time-to-market, higher error rates, inflated manpower costs, and a poor customer experience. None of which align with a successful digital transformation in the telecom industry.
Telcos aren’t alone. Satellite and hybrid terrestrial–satellite operators face these same fragmentation challenges, often amplified by domain boundaries. Here are some common reasons:
When satellites serve as backhaul or access layers (or even host network functions onboard), coordinating inventory, control, and service logic between terrestrial OSS systems and space-domain systems becomes harder.
Alvatross’s role in the “SATCOM with an Edge – Phase III” Catalyst project, proofs how a catalog may serve as the backbone that unifies terrestrial and satellite offers, bridging those different catalogs and providing a single source of truth. That proof-of-concept (which has won several awards over the past couple of years) demonstrates how OSS solutions can extend beyond pure terrestrial domains into the hybrid space/ground world.
It also represents a clear demonstration of how adopting the industry-standard frameworks promoted by TM Forum doesn’t just improve internal agility. It also enables faster collaboration across partners and ecosystems, aligning multiple teams around shared models and accelerating joint delivery.
More information here: alvatross.io/news/satcom-with-an-edge-phase-iii-catalyst-wins-tech-for-good-award-at-tm-forum-dtw-ignite-2025
If satellite capacity data or link constraints aren’t exposed in the catalog or service orchestration layer, orders can fail unpredictably or suboptimally.
In nonterrestrial networks, latency, beam switching, and handovers between satellite and ground domains demand tightly synchronized systems to avoid service degradation.
While public case studies on OSS systems fragmentation in satellite are limited, it’s reasonable to infer that hybrid operators must handle many of the same disconnects terrestrial carriers do, but with greater technical complexity due to domain boundaries.
As industry observers like Ryan Jeffery have argued, there’s a deeper lens through which to view OSS/BSS modernization: the Lindy Effect. (In his article “Can you predict the Next 40 years of OSS/BSS? The Lindy Effect might help” on LinkedIn).
What is the Lindy Effect? In non-perishable domains (ideas, institutions, software paradigms) longevity is a predictor of continued relevance. Applied to OSS/BSS, the Lindy Effect suggests that core domains that have lasted long are likely to continue enduring. According to Jeffery, four OSS/BSS domains have stood the test of time:
These domains persist even as architectures, interfaces, and technologies evolve. They are safe “land plots” whose underlying value compounds over time.
From Alvatross’s perspective, this viewpoint resonates strongly. Our solution portfolio includes modules whose very purpose aligns with those Lindy-stable domains:
By investing in these building blocks today, and not just chasing every fleeting buzzword, service providers (CSPs and satellite operators alike) can create a resilient foundation that persists across architecture shifts (cloud-native, microservices, AI-assisted orchestration, etc.).
Of course, they’ll be changes along the way and OSS solutions will need to adapt to new realities over time. But these domains will most likely remain central to any strategy related to OSS solutions and digital transformation in the telecom sector and satellite domain. So, by aligning remediation and roadmap around them, we reduce fragility and ensure investments can compound rather than become obsolete.
Operators building hybrid services, offering IoT, etc. must address data silos, inconsistent processes, and architectural misalignment before jumping into the next step.
Here are 3 recommendations on how to begin addressing these gaps using proven OSS solutions and strategies.
1. Align inventory and service logic across domains
Fragmentation often begins with separate inventories. Without a unified view of what exists, where it lives, and how it's used, it's nearly impossible to deliver seamless service.
2. Use standardized catalogs to centralize offer management
Fragmentation often begins with separate inventories. Without a unified view of what exists, where it lives, and how it's used, it's nearly impossible to deliver seamless service.
3. Leverage standards for interoperability
One of the most effective ways to tackle fragmentation is to adopt open, standardized APIs and architectures. And, the TM Forum Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and Open APIs offer a shared language across vendors and domains
In other words, we’ll be setting a solid foundation for long-term success in digital transformation across the telecom industry and satellite ecosystems. With tools like TM Forum standards, centralized catalogs, and modular OSS components, the journey toward unified operations becomes far more achievable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. How does fragmentation slow down digital transformation in the telecom industry?
Fragmented BSS and OSS systems create silos, duplicate data, and inconsistent workflows. This leads to slower product launches, higher error rates, and poor customer experiences, all of which block progress in digital transformation.
2. Why are OSS solutions critical for digital transformation in telecom and satellite domains?
OSS solutions provide the integration layer that unifies catalogs, inventories, and order management. By breaking down silos, they allow telecom and satellite operators to accelerate service delivery, improve accuracy, and enhance agility.
3. Can digital transformation work without modern OSS solutions?
It’s challenging. Fragmented systems slow down operations and innovation. Modern OSS solutions are key to scaling services and improving agility.
