i3forum launches market data aggregation service with nine initial carriers

Nine of i3forum’s 28 members will be the first to use its newly launched Insights service, the company announced today.

 

The stated goal of Insights is to “bring together carriers from across the globe to create a not-for-profit, industry-controlled platform that supports the sustainability and optimisation of Voice businesses,” said i3forum chairman, Philippe Millet. 

 

i3forum Insights will allow the nine members – BICS, BTS, iBasis, Orange, PCCW Global, Tata Communications, Sparkle, Telefónica International Wholesale Services, and Telstra – to compare their own voice data to an anonymised aggregate of that of the other participants via an analytics engine.

 

The platform itself is built and operated by TeleGeography, using the analytics engine Tableau.

 

Importantly, the data provided by each carrier is kept entirely anonymised, with no other party able to access it.

 

“Market data is shaping the future of carrier businesses,” said Mike Bisaha, senior analyst at TeleGeography. “It’s helping companies make smarter, more informed decisions with greater speed. i3forum Insights is an example of carriers collaborating to benefit their own business, as well as the entire industry.” 

 

The demand for such a platform has been growing for some time. Carriers typically only have access to their own private data sets that they update periodically – a process which is time consuming and inefficient when it comes to subsequent analysis. With a much larger data set available from the Insights platform, carriers will have access to statistics much more representative of the market at large. 

 

However, the project is not without its challenges. With data being received from so many sources in various formats, its aggregation will be tricky. The platform underwent beta testing prior to launch, but future updates and additional functionalities will likely follow for some time as the platform matures.

 

“As the platform evolves, it will be a central resource for planning, optimising, and growing voice businesses,” said Bisaha.

 

The Insights service is available to all carriers, without requiring membership of the i3forum, provided they are willing to share their data.