Openet, the policy and (hard) charging specialist, is being snapped up by Amdocs, its bigger rival in the BSS space.

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

July 23, 2020

3 Min Read
Openet opts to dance with the 'dinosaur'

Amdocs just got a boost in its 5G policy and charging capabilities, and that's no BSS.

The Chesterfield, Missouri-based purveyor of back-office software for telcos, media companies and enterprises declares on its website that its mission is "to enrich lives and progress society." That path enlightenment includes gobbling up an Irish business support systems (BSS) vendor.

Amdocs said today it would buy Openet for $180 million. Openet had hauled in around $140 million in the past two years, the two companies announced.

In the past year, Openet's software has hit the right note with several 5G core vendors – including Samsung and HPE – becoming their default 5G policy and charging function.

Amdocs very well could have been sick of losing out to Openet in customer engagements. The vendor has said that about three years ago it retrenched, refocused and aimed to take on deals where it could make headway versus Ericsson, Huawei, Amdocs and bigger competitors. It said at the time it was investing in rewriting its BSS solutions from scratch to make them cloud native and 5G ready.

Openet also added partnerships with NTT Data, AWS and Accenture, to name a few, realizing that it didn't have to fight the OSS/BSS giants all by itself.

The operator wins started piling up for Openet shortly after its 2017 retrenching. Its recent deals have included wins at Iridium, VADSA, Bell Canada, Telkomsel and SaskTel. Openet just recently expanded its footprint in BT, where it was already providing the charging solution to BT Mobile.

In 2017, Openet's CEO Niall Norton told Light Reading the company started winning when it embraced automation, interoperability and used its size to its advantage. "We were a fit-looking pygmy," he said. "If you are getting chased by a lion, you don't have to be the fastest. You just have to be faster than the guy behind you."

Norton also used that interview to compare Amdocs to a dinosaur, noting that its technology was behind the times. "We are not here to peacefully coexist with Oracle and Amdocs," he told Light Reading at the time. "With this technology, they are dinosaurs."

And, yes, Light Reading's editors also shortlisted the firm as one of the outstanding digital enablement vendors in 2020, where larger firms like Amdocs and Netcracker were also favorites to win.

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Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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