SINGAPORE - Huawei has built the telecommunications industry's first service operation center established by an information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, it announced on Tuesday.

The service operation center, located in Indonesia, is aimed to help carriers tackle the challenges of the digital era by focusing on end-user experience to retain and attract customers, said Frank Yao, vice president of global marketing execution at the Global Technical Services unit of Huawei.

"We've seen more and more telecom operators embarking on the transformation from network centric to service centric operations, however, there has been limited choice and support for these efforts in the market place, leaving operators in a difficult position," Yao told a press briefing on the sidelines of the CommunicAsia in Singapore.

The center represents an enhanced approach compared with purely Network Operation Center operations, with a view to ensuring superior service quality and customer experiences by centralizing the management of service-oriented operations and maintenance.

Huawei chose to establish the center in Indonesia largely because it is an important market of managed services for Huawei and data usage has been surprisingly popular in the local market, as many subscribers jump directly to mobile data services without being a computer user.

Service quality management and customer experience management are considered the most important operational issues facing carriers in the next three years, according to a recent survey of 115 communications service providers by Informa Telecoms and Media.

"Those operators that don't make the transition will be at a disadvantage against competitors that can deliver a superior customer experience," said Kris Szaniawski, an analyst at the consultancy.

This is also the key to tackling the challenges resulting from the rise of OTT (over-the-top) contents, including messages carried through applications such as Wechat and Whatsapp, the industry veterans said.

Telecom carriers may have to move to the user-centric model of operations, as new applications can overtake existing ones within a matter of months, said Danny Yap, director of SP AMS solution development department, Huawei Technologies Malaysia.

They may have to either combine the advantages of a traditional carrier and a developer of applications, or tap the gold mine of the vast user data, to offer the best solutions and experience to customers, said Wei Bing, head of marketing department, assurance and managed services department at Huawei.

Industry players from Asia and beyond are gathering in Singapore on Tuesday for the four-day exhibition and conference CommunicAsia, which is held concurrently with the Broadcast Asia. They are having discussions on the industry trends as well as challenges facing the players.