Clearwire Communications LLC, a subsidiary of Clearwire Corporation, has chosen customer service specialist Amdocs to support the mobile WiMAX contender’s retail and wholesale business.
Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Clearwire has the use of Amdocs’ CES 7.5 portfolio, which includes customer management, self service, billing, mediation and ordering. For its part, Amdocs will manage Clearwire’s existing business support systems as well as the conversion to the new customer service platform.
Clearwire is at a critical juncture as it works toward a nationwide expansion of its mobile WiMAX network, so adding subscribers and keeping churn at a low level is especially important. The company has a smaller window to smooth customer relationships as it bills them for usage of its 4G network. While billing systems for legacy 2.5G and 3G networks are long-established, there is little precedent for billing of 4G services. Amdocs has experience deploying in a 4G environment, and says it can handle everything from customer interaction to backhaul planning.
“Customer relationships in the 4G era have a unique flavor – the industry continues to move from being service-centric to customer-centric,” says Michael Couture, head of global marketing for Amdocs. “4G can enable customers to use services and devices based on their desired experience – however, to accommodate these requirements, [service providers] need to have a customer-centric business and operational support environment to effectively address this shift.”
This is the first time Amdocs has worked with Clearwire, although the company has a long-standing business relationship with Clearwire majority owner Sprint.
"As Clearwire continues to expand our nationwide mobile WiMAX network, we are investing in proven technology to enable us to launch new products quickly and deliver a powerful customer experience," said Jeff Pearson, vice president of information technology for Clearwire, in a statement. "By partnering with Amdocs, we will deploy an integrated platform to support a growing customer base and to collaborate more effectively with our wholesale partners."