10:00 AM -- EuroBlog is off to Nice on the French Riviera next week to visit TeleManagement World (TMW), the annual European shindig for the telecom software sector.

We've been going to this event since 2002, when OSS (fault management, inventory, mediation, and so on) was regarded as a dull, but worthy, element of the telecom recipe -- something for the techie IT guys to deal with.

At the same time, the standards work of TMW's organizer, the TM Forum , was passed off by many (including executives from some of its carrier members -- you know who you are) as peripheral, and of little practical use.

Five years on and things couldn't be more different.

Telecom software is at the heart of carrier NGN strategies. The world's biggest operators are basing their transformation strategies using the TMF's standards, such as NGOSS (New Generation OSS), SID (Shared Information/Data), and MTOSI (Multi-Technology Operations Systems Interface), and are backing the TMF's Prosspero initiative that aims to help with software procurement and interoperability. (See Carriers Back Prosspero and TMF Tackles Software Procurement .)

Now, all of sudden, even carrier marketing departments need to understand this world, as it underpins the service creation capabilities that can make or break a service.

Light Reading will be in Nice next week. While there, we may drop in on TMW to check out just how the OSS brigade fits into the new telecom order. Any thoughts on how you think the role of the telecom software fraternity has changed in the past few years are more than welcome.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading