Advanced Info Service (AIS), Thailand’s leading telecommunications operator, has finalized a significant upgrade and cloud deployment of its revenue management systems. The project, executed by long-term technology partner Netcracker Technology, is noted as one of the most substantial cloud migrations for a telecom operator within the Asia-Pacific region. The initiative moves AIS’s business support systems (BSS) for both consumer and enterprise segments onto a fully cloud-native architecture, designed to support the company’s existing quad-play services and future expansion.
The deployment underscores a strategic shift within established telecom operators as they modernize core IT infrastructures. The move aims to enhance agility, reduce operational costs, and create a foundation for new service introductions, particularly in the 5G and enterprise IoT domains. For AIS, which serves a base of more than 45 million subscribers, the transition was conducted without disrupting ongoing services, including during high-traffic events like major device launches.
The Strategic Imperative for Modernization
Beyond Legacy System Constraints
For large, incumbent operators like AIS, legacy billing and revenue management systems often pose significant challenges. These monolithic platforms can be difficult to scale, expensive to maintain, and slow to adapt when launching new pricing models or bundled services. In a highly competitive market where convergence—offering mobile, fixed-line, internet, and television as a single package—is a key differentiator, this lack of agility becomes a critical business risk.
The decision to undertake a full-scale upgrade of such a core system, while simultaneously migrating it to a cloud-native environment, represents a substantial investment. It signals a prioritization of long-term operational resilience and innovation capacity over short-term technical convenience. The project is positioned not as a simple IT refresh, but as a foundational element of AIS’s broader digital transformation agenda.
The Cloud-Native Advantage
Cloud-native design refers to applications built specifically for cloud environments, using microservices, containers, and dynamic orchestration. For a revenue management platform, this architectural approach translates into several concrete benefits. Systems become inherently more scalable, able to handle traffic spikes automatically. They also gain flexibility, as individual components can be updated, replaced, or scaled independently without affecting the entire system.
This stands in contrast to simply lifting and shifting an old application to a cloud server. A true cloud-native rebuild allows the operator to fully exploit the elasticity and automation capabilities of modern cloud infrastructure. Netcracker’s platform, part of its broader Digital BSS suite, is engineered on these principles, aiming to provide the granularity and speed required by contemporary telecom business models.
Operational and Business Impacts
Enhanced Customer Offerings and Billing Flexibility
A direct outcome of the new platform is increased flexibility in designing customer propositions. The system supports subscription billing across various cycles—monthly, quarterly, and annually—for both B2C and B2B quad-play customers. This allows AIS to craft and launch tailored packages more rapidly, catering to diverse customer segments from individual consumers to large corporations requiring complex, SLA-backed services.
This billing agility is crucial for retaining and growing market share. It enables faster experimentation with new pricing and bundling strategies, allowing the operator to respond to competitor moves or capitalize on new trends with reduced time-to-market. For end-users, the benefit materializes as more choice and potentially more competitive pricing structures.
Driving Operational Efficiency and Cost Optimization
The implementation is reported to deliver improved cost optimization, contributing to better operational efficiency and profitability. Cloud-native systems typically reduce the need for physical hardware, lower energy consumption, and automate many manual maintenance tasks. The scalable nature of the platform means AIS can align infrastructure costs more closely with actual usage, avoiding over-provisioning for peak capacities that are only occasionally needed.
Furthermore, the stability of the new environment, as cited by AIS, reduces the risk and potential cost of service outages. The successful management of high-demand scenarios, such as a new iPhone launch, without disruption validates the platform’s robustness. This reliability is non-negotiable for a national operator, where system failures can lead to significant revenue loss and reputational damage.
Positioning for Future Growth and 5G
Foundations for Enterprise 5G and IoT
A key strategic driver behind the upgrade is the anticipated demands of 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT). While consumer 5G offers enhanced bandwidth, the larger revenue opportunity for operators is often identified in the B2B sector. Enterprise 5G applications—such as for smart factories, automated logistics, or remote healthcare—require highly reliable, low-latency networks with sophisticated billing and settlement capabilities.
These enterprise services often operate on novel commercial models, including network slicing, quality-of-service (QoS) tiering, and consumption-based pricing. A legacy revenue management system would struggle to support these complex, dynamic constructs. The new cloud-native platform is explicitly intended to provide the necessary flexibility to support innovative 5G business models, positioning AIS to capture value as the enterprise market matures.
Sustaining a Long-Term Technology Partnership
The project highlights the evolving nature of vendor-operator relationships in the telecom industry. AIS and Netcracker reference a long-term partnership, suggesting a collaborative model that extends beyond a simple vendor-client transaction. Such complex, core-system transformations are multi-year endeavors that require deep integration between the operator’s business teams and the vendor’s technical experts.
In statements, Bharat Alva, Chief Information Officer at AIS, confirmed the platform’s stability and scalability, noting plans to build on the current momentum with additional functionality. Bob Titus, Chief Technology Officer at Netcracker, framed the successful go-live as a validation of his company’s ongoing investments in cloud and AI technologies. This indicates a shared roadmap where the deployed platform is not an end-state but a living system that will continue to evolve.
A Benchmark for Regional Telecom Transformation
The scale of this deployment within Thailand and the wider APAC region sets a notable benchmark. It demonstrates that large-scale, core system cloud migration is feasible for major incumbent operators without service degradation. For the industry, it provides a reference case study on modernizing the essential, yet often inflexible, revenue management backbone.
As telecom markets globally face pressure from both competition and the need to fund network advancements like 5G and fiber, operational transformation becomes a financial imperative. Projects like AIS’s upgrade point toward a path where modernized BSS infrastructure acts as a business enabler, reducing operational costs while unlocking new revenue streams and improving customer experience. The success of this implementation will likely be closely watched by other operators in the region weighing similar strategic investments.
About Netcracker Technology
Netcracker Technology, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation, has the expertise, culture and resources to help service providers around the world transform their businesses to thrive in the digital economy. Our innovative solutions, value-driven services and unbroken delivery track record have enabled our customers to grow and succeed for more than three decades. With the latest technological advancements in key areas including 5G monetization, AI, automation and vertical industries, we help service providers to reach their transformation goals, advance their telco to techco evolution and realize business growth and profitability. To learn more, visit www.netcracker.com.
