According to new research from IDC, telecom service providers will invest heavily in next-generation technologies to manage subscriber information, analyse behaviours, and ultimately deliver usable content to marketing executives and advertisers.

"While critical to the success of SPs, subscriber management remains fragmented within the telecommunications infrastructure," said Elisabeth Rainge, director of IDC's Network Software research. "New services and usage patterns are expanding the scope of subscriber management, and the consolidation of information is creating a powerful, and lucrative, information source."

Understanding subscriber preferences and usage patterns reduces operational costs and opens up an array of market development opportunities that are going largely untapped. "In the race to compete with Internet players – from content owners to advertisers – SPs must leverage their subscriber data assets," Rainge said.