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SLAs and QoS guarantees spell money for operators, but can they deliver?
August 19, 2009 | FierceMobileIT - Lynnette Luna, When are we going to see high-level service level agreements (SLAs) and Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees as they relate to mobile broadband and business applications?
To date, there are few, if any, commitments that go beyond dropped data sessions and network availability, such as guaranteed speed and quality. But attitudes could be changing as operators find more difficulty in monetizing their mobile data networks. Flat-rate pricing plans are driving up traffic but the corresponding revenues aren't matching up to the cost. Offering premium services with varying levels of QoS attached is appealing to make up for that cost. At least that is what a host of experts in the industry say. We just haven't heard that mantra publicly from the operators themselves yet.