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The connectivity services sector looks promising as the Indian economy is set to grow at 8-9% and there is no dearth of leading enterprises spreading their wings in India and abroad and attracting foreign companies here.

Though there has been a decline in ARPUs of mobile operators on account of massive increase in subscriber base, telecom companies maintain their growth because they tap enterprises offering attractive connectivity services.

At the heart of the India growth story is globalization. Indian MNCs are doing global business and several telecom companies are here to enable that ambition. Growth will be seen across all sectors, especially IT&BPO, media, and pharmaceutical.

Demanding Enterprises

IT/ITeS, pharmaceuticals, media, BFSI, and large enterprises with global footprint for voice-VPN services will drive connectivity services.

A number of enterprises are trying to opt for pay-per-use mode and that is a major trend that can change the face of the industry. This is totally different from the earlier capex investment model as the new trend is skewed toward the opex model. The opex model is gaining popularity as it is an important tool to improve quality and cost efficiency.

There is also an increased acceptance of hosted contact center solutions and hosted security services among leading enterprises. Hosted contact center solutions, managed security services, managed data centers, and managed security are the main demands of enterprises.

Enterprise customers are looking for hosted voice services like hosted PBX services and convergence of voice and data on a single pipe to cut costs. Enterprise customers want QoS on VoIP and efficient reporting to allow them to view the performance of their VoIP service.

What's in the Offing
Most carriers provide traditional connectivity services like international private leased circuit, Internet leased lines, and global VPN connectivity to enterprises. Tata Communications, as part of its managed services strategy, has built vertical-specific application portfolio over the connectivity services to provide the benefits of:

• Enhanced business adaptability and competitive advantage
• Lower cost of ownership
• Cost manageability
• Improved reliability, scalability, and service levels
• Reduced risk of obsolescence

The company's service InstaCC, hosted contact center solution suite, provides international and domestic call centers the entire application suite of outbound predictive dialing, voice logging, reporting services, hosted IVR, agent and supervisor interfaces with connectivity and 24x7 operations support with attractive pay-per-use tariffs. The service is said to be highly successful in the mid-market segment, specifically outsourcers and telemarketers.

Tata Communications is soon launching voice VPN services for the global enterprise to provide enterprise-wide voice connectivity over VPN.

Driven by the growth in the domestic contact center market and multi-location contact centers, the industry sees very rapid growth in hosted contact center service uptake in India. Tata Communications expects to add over 5,000 seats in 2008-09.

The growth in managed voice services for IT/ITeS is expected to be in the range of 25-30% in 2008-09 compared to the previous year. This growth is likely to be driven by rapid uptake of VoIP services by contact centers.

Tata Communications has a suite of managed voice services for the IT/ITES vertical, specifically international call centers, domestic call centers, and BPOs. The company plans to launch voice VPN services on its global VPN platform for global enterprise customers.

Tata Communications' voice-VPN services will provide convergence of voice and data on the company's global VPN network. VSNL's global VPN network is built on Cisco's MPLS technology.

MPLS-based IPVPNs are emerging as the next generation networking for enterprise connectivity, and enterprises are opting for multi-service provider strategies.

Voice quality is not an issue with SIP if proper quality of service (QoS) measures, such as over provisioning of links and prioritization of voice traffic, are applied. Reliability is also a moot point. In fact, SIP can be more reliable than the traditional PSTN as a number of solutions can be implemented.

New Technologies
Unified and hosted contact center, which supports multi-tenant and multimedia applications like voice, chat, email, and virtualization, is a technology that should revolutionize the contact center market in India.

India has traditionally been a market for premises-based dialer/ACD technology, which has its own disadvantages in terms of high startup costs, very high upgrade costs, and does not support multi-location deployments.

Hosted contact center as a technology is ideal for contact centers with multiple sites as it enables management of the contact center activities with great ease.

The hosted contact center platform integrates into other hosted applications like hosted scripting, hosted CRM, and hosted workforce management. The service is available on demand, with support and upgrades being the service provider's responsibility, thereby allowing contact centers to expand and migrate operations on demand. Other new technologies available in the market are Ethernet as WAN core and unified communications, while new technologies in the pipeline include WiMax as last mile and fixed mobile convergence.

Tata Communications sees the session initiation protocol (SIP) standard in VoIP being adopted in a big way in enterprises and contact centers. The potential for a rapid return on investment (RoI) is a key driver of SIP deployments. The productivity benefits with SIP are also significant. While some see SIP as just voice, it will also serve as the starting point for the entire breadth of real time communications possible with the protocol, including instant messaging, presence applications and application sharing.

Multiple Options
The VSAT industry has conventionally grown in banking, broking, and manufacturing segments for their core enterprise networking requirements. This trend will continue along with new areas like extended enterprise (dealer network, C&F agents, etc).

Core banking application, satellite broadband Internet access, distance education, e-governance, telemedicine, and government-driven CSC projects are few drivers of the VSAT market. The VSAT industry had another major run this year. There was a robust demand, along with tremendous growth, among the captive and shared hub services from enterprises as well as the government.

VSAT electronics is now quite affordable. Further breakthrough in pricing can be expected only if volumes increase substantially due to new segments opening up.

VSAT is playing a key role in offering cost-effective connectivity services. Providing mission-critical backup connectivity for primary connectivity mediums such as leased lines and MPLS is one of the key trends in the VSAT industry.

There is a rising demand for higher-speed services for new value-added applications like two-way videoconferencing, voice-over-Internet Protocol telephone services, and other real-time applications that require higher bit rates and faster links. The use of hybrid services that combine more than one technology is leading to cost effectiveness. VSAT is one of the strongest reliable communication infrastructures for remote areas, providing rural connectivity.

Growth in the shared hub services model for delivering services for VSAT service providers is yet another trend that is gaining significance. Media and entertainment-digital cinema, sharing of media content over satellite medium, among other things-will drive the growth of connectivity services. E-commerce, e-governance, e-finance, SWANs for centralization of applications and processes, satellite broadband Internet access, digital signage, digital cinema, and rural banking are the other focus areas.

Communication on the move is a strong trend nowadays and mobile VSAT is strongly used and deployed by government agencies for providing medical facilities, education and as a communication medium in the defense segment. Electricity boards and SCADA networks are in strong demand for VSAT connectivity. Stock trading and the commodity segment remain to be dominant in the VSAT market. The industry is seeing renewed thrust of Internet connectivity in remote towns for small enterprises, hotels, and education institutions.

Satellite bandwidth costs still remain substantially higher than terrestrial connectivity, hampering faster growth. The government should initiate an 'Open Sky' policy, which will enable level-playing field for the VSAT industry.

Tata Indicom VSAT Services is creating a 'Pan-Africa' communication network for telemedicine, tele-education, Internet, videoconferencing, telecommunication, and e-governance services across fifty-three African countries.

Enterprises are looking at options to reach locations around the globe with multiple options.

Scalability is yet another demand among CIOs/CTOs. Single window account management and end-to-end link management and seamless connectivity are the focus areas of many telecom operators.

Indian enterprises have always experienced multiple options for their connectivity objectives. They always prefer flexible networks to meet their customer demands such as increased data transfer speed and prioritization of traffic.

Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in