It's been two years since Light Reading last published a "Who Makes What" report for the telecom software sector, during which time the OSS and BSS (operations support systems and business support systems) market has undergone massive upheaval. (See Who Makes What: OSS Update.)

Mergers and acquisitions have come thick and fast, largely as a result of telecom operators consolidating networks and back office systems as part of their move towards next-generation networks. This has been magnified by consolidation in the service provider market, operator efforts to reduce their line-ups of software suppliers, and the financial position of many of the OSS/BSS players.

More details on these developments are given on page 2.

The object of this report is to identify those companies still active in developing and delivering OSS to carriers and to the systems integrators that help the operators deploy such systems. We've tried to keep it as simple as possible by limiting the number of categories to 15, as listed below.

Why we're doing it
The resulting taxonomy will provide a useful, up-to-date resource for everyone in the industry. For OSS companies it will show them who is (and isn't!) competing with them. For integrators and carriers it'll help identify the players in this important market, and drill down into who does what.

In addition, the company names listed in this taxonomy will provide the foundation for an upcoming market survey of service providers' perceptions of players in some of the hottest OSS market segments, to be published as a Light Reading Insider report.

How we're doing it, with your help
Each of the following pages contains a brief description of an OSS category and then a list of companies active in that sector. This is where you can help. If your company is a supplier in this market, please take the time to check that you're comfortable with the way we're defining the market and make sure you're listed in all of the appropriate places. You can also suggest other company names that should be included or disregarded.

If you want to propose changes, use the message board linked to the article or email us at editors@lightreading.com and include "Who Makes What: OSS" and your company name in the subject field.

Here's the hyperlinked list of our OSS categories: