With carriers and service providers hunting for additional revenue streams through converged networks that bring together wireless, wireline, and IP networks, growth of next generation networks in Asia will be faster.

The fact that convergence is also sought in many areas of network design as part of the effort to reduce costs, and create innovative services and applications, would add fuel to the growth in Asia. However, Indian operators are still cagey about wide deployments.

The 2nd Annual Next Generation Networks Asia 2007, a Frost&Sullivan Executive MindXchange Summit, held in Singapore on August 28-29, addressed key NGN strategies adopted by service providers. The second chapter of NGN, also known as NGN 2.0, follows the concept of Web 2.0, positioning the network as a platform for convergence, redefining lifestyle services to form the ultimate DNA for enhanced user experience.

The two-day event saw participation from telecom majors such as Nokia Siemens Networks, Cisco, BT, Datacraft, ECI Telecom, and IBM, while a number of service providers from Asia Pacific region shared their plans and concerns.

Marcelo Blatt, director, Strategic Marketing, Transport Networking Division, ECI Telecom, said key challenges include difficulty in generating revenue and increasing ARPU. Developing new services and content, and expansion to new sectors would be one of the solutions. Minimizing total cost of ownership and aligning investment with service uptake, network convergence, leveraging existing operation mode would assist in reducing capital and operational costs. "Market trends are driving networks evolution," Blatt added.

Wilfried Schrupp, head, Sales, Broadband Access, Nokia Siemens Networks, Asia Pacific, says that Internet and telecom growth is going hand in hand. Globally, fixed line users are expected to marginally grow from around 1,300 mn in 2007 to around 1,350 mn in 2010, while mobile and Internet subscribers will touch 1,800 mn from 1,400 mn in 2007, and 3,700 mn from 2,900 in 2010.

According to Schrupp, combining fixed and mobile traffic would bring additional savings in Capex and Opex and carrier Ethernet is the most cost effective solution. The salient features of carrier Ethernet are drastic simplification of network architecture, most cost efficient transport by using the lowest possible layer, enabling end-to-end connectivity with differentiated QoS. "Wireline solutions are the most cost effective for bandwidth provisioning since they are as close as possible to the consumer through FTTX solutions for transport through QoS supporting carrier Ethernet solutions," he added.

Marcelo Blatt, director, Strategic Marketing, ECI Telecom, Israel, speaking on innovation in the next generation transport networks

According to Sharat Sinha, director, Service Provider Operations, Cisco Systems, Apac, a Cisco research among the US broadband users in 2006 shows that consumers understand and value connected life services. As per the survey, 40% are extremely interested in the services, while 37% are moderately interested, and 20% are not interested at all. On an average, consumers expect to pay $13 per month for added connected life services.

According to Sinha, service providers must take advantage of current customer perceptions. Consumer uncertainty reflects market immaturity with more than 1 in 5 respondents (23%) not knowing their preferred provider. Cable MSOs have a strong lead driven by video presence and multi-product bundling. Mobile providers' lack of presence in the home and minimal multi-product experience has contributed to low consumer mind share.

Security is also a barrier that must be managed effectively. A connected life service would make households vulnerable to security intrusions. Storing all our household digital media content in a central location would make that information more secure.

Ralph Hengstenberg, head of portfolio management, Global Telecom Markets, BT Global Services, says that IMS faces challenges though it offers immense benefits. Benefits include cost reduction from running multiple services over a common platform, revenue generation from new applications developed or brought from third party developers, improved user experience generates stickiness, and less legacy with potentially expensive platforms to maintain.

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