Ericsson is teaming with Google to allow mobile operators to connect to multiple over-the-top (OTT) players such as YouTube.
The new OTT Cloud Connect (OCC) will take the form of an open cloud service to enable global mobile operators to connect to multiple OTT players and deliver new and creative services to users. The OCC platform can in principle allow any OTT player to deliver features to users based on integration with specific operator network capabilities. It will act as a gateway platform that abstracts the complexities of each operator’s network and provide integration for OTT players and applications.
The platform will also attempt to bridge the gap between operator networks and OTT services by exposing the OSS and BSS capabilities of operators to OTT players and vice versa. This, claims Ericsson, will bring simplicity to collaboration between OTTs and operators, making it possible to offer unique application-specific features to end users for better experiences.
The first partner for the project will be Google and the integration is designed to enable Google to bring what Ericsson says will be ‘innovative’ features and services to products such as the core YouTube online video service and scale out to reach large numbers of users through OCC.
“Collaboration between operators and OTT providers will be key as we start seeing new innovative services being introduced towards the end users,” explained Diomedes Kastanis, head of technology, business unit support solutions at Ericsson. “Ericsson is strongly supportive of this approach and we believe we are in a sweet spot to play the role of an enabler to make this collaboration happen. We are very bullish about the OCC platform and very happy to have integrated with YouTube as the first video platform. We look forward to on-boarding many more OTT providers”
Added Jay Akkad, senior product manager on the YouTube emerging markets team: “Mobile environments introduce a number of complexities, but also a range of opportunities when it comes to delivering quality experiences for users. Ericsson’s OTT Cloud Connect forges collaboration between operators and OTT providers to break down some of this complexity and open the door to a world of opportunity for enhancing services.”