Are there any benefits for companies in the telecommunications industry to mine and analyse their data? Is "Big Data" a bane or a boon to gain competitive advantage when the industry is stagnated and growth trends are horizontal. Are there any new avenues for growth and sustaining profits?. These questions are boggling the operators. But, do the operators have the right technology to harness this potential and do they have the technology to support their strategies?

Analysis of latent data and the location where it is analysed can provide cost effective and overbearing oversight into business operations and ways to make it efficient. If it’s done correctly, the analysis can give operators a comprehensive and transparent view of customers thus enabling new and more profitable ways of capturing and retaining them.

Most operators perform analytics of their internal data to boost the efficiency of their networks, define customer segments more accurately and drive profitability with some success. Effective analytics can help operators identify and prioritize the specific areas that need immediate attention be it network management, revenue assurance, customer churn, service performance or technology adaptation. However, without careful planning it is difficult and cumbersome to undertake projects to drive profitability across the entire telecom value chain, from network operations to product development to marketing, sales, and customer services.

Service providers can use advanced analytics to effectively manage and monetize their big data. They can use advanced analytics for more innovative business models that can offer more targeted service plans based on specific customer segmentations. These more personalized offerings ensure increase in revenue and simultaneously reduce churn. Service providers can use advanced analytics for pre-emptive service assurance and customer care by correlating the information about the customer from various systems, which can trigger certain actions to prevent problems before they occur.

Strategic advanced analytics on big data can enable operators to do all of the above. In the future, big data and advanced analytics implementation will be imperative to service and networks strategy, and operators must start planning for them now.