The OpenOSS Project - An open Source operations Support Lab for the Telecommunications Industry.

This paper discusses the aims, objectives and early deliverables from the OpenOSS project which has been set up with the sponsorship of a number of Telecommunications Service Providers to investigate thepotential value of open source as an enabler for rapid innovation within the telecommunications industry. This paper also reports on the success of an initial proof of concept of OpenOSS which was pubically demonstrated t the telecommunications industry in Nice at the 2005 Telemanagement World Conference. We consider the practical business and technical benefits and challenges of using open source development in this way and report on our plans to take the project to the next stage of development