Internet and web
2.0 providers such as Google, Skype, Facebook, YouTube and MySpace have taken
leadership roles in offering consumers with innovative services around
software-as-a-service (SaaS), Voice over IP (VoIP), user created content (UCC)
and social networking, thereby raising user expectations when it comes to
interactive, collaborative, and community-oriented services. And all of these
services are being offered with a revolutionary business model that is free.
The explosive growth in popularity of
these web domain providers, along with device manufacturers such as Apple with
their iTunes App Store and iPhone devices are putting enormous pressure on
traditional communications service providers (CSPs). In order to avoid being
relegated to being a 'dumb pipe' to the web and device domain players, CSPs are
facing the challenge of delivering new IP multimedia and converged IP services
by increasingly leveraging third party developers across their mobile and fixed
network domains.
In order to evolve legacy voice-centric
networks towards an all IP based architecture, the communications industry has
developed a standard called IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), initially developed
for GSM mobile networks by the third generation partnership project (3GPP).
Subsequently, the standards bodies for the CDMA mobile networks, cable networks,
and fixed line networks have also adopted IMS as the basis for evolving their
networks to an all IP based architecture. Based on the Internet technologies
such as session initation protocol (SIP) and diameter, IMS enables CSPs to
rapidly create and deliver new real-time multimedia and converged services,
resulting in incremental revenue opportunities. With the wide-scale deployment
and adoption of 3G and eventually 4G, networks, IMS has the potential to deliver
a new dimension in service innovation to the telecommunications industry.
Net Surges Ahead
Thriving Internet players are successfully delivering and monetizing
cross-domain, collaborative multimedia services that are not encumbered by
legacy signaling and network infrastructure. They are also proving that certain
enterprise users are willing to use Internet based communications services when
the functionality, quality of service, and price are right. In certain markets,
this success of the Internet providers diverts potential revenue as well as
end-user mindshare away from the fixed and mobile CSPs. For example, most of
Google's products can be accessed on Internet-capable mobile devices such as on
smartphones like the iPhone. Also an increasing number of businesses and
individuals globally are turning to VoIP providers such as Skype to access
inexpensive global communications, both PC-to-PC and PC-to-telephone. In
addition, Internet video is exploding across all channels-YouTube video clips
are now commonly seen on network television broadcasts, even though YouTube was
conceived with user-generated content in mind. Many companies today are
leveraging the web 2.0 and social networking medium extensively to reach out to
existing and prospective customers.
The reality in the industry today is that
some Internet players like Google, Facebook, and Skype have become providers of
innovative, cheap, and addictive services, thus, driving rapid and massive
uptakes of their services. And in some cases, these Internet providers have
launched services bridging the communications network domain. The Internet
providers are also able to create and launch new services very rapidly and
cost-effectively, because their entire service creation and delivery
infrastructures are based on IT and Web based technologies.
In contrast, CSPs rely heavily on separate
siloed and fragmented service delivery systems which tend to be specific to one
type of network, application, and device. These legacy systems hinder a CSP's
ability to adapt rapidly and compete successfully. In addition, reliance on
technology (for product and customer information) that is spread across
redundant IT infrastructures-that aren't merged effectively-drives up cost. The
challenge is to bundle the products and integrate personalized services based on
a complete understanding of the users' preferences, buying habits, etc, to
provide a pleasant customer experience.
The IMS Advantage
It's evident that IMS has the potential to offer CSPs a uniquely
differentiating competitive advantage over the Internet service providers.
However, because the immediate and pressing priority for CSPs is to create
value-added data service offerings-which can offset declining voice ARPU rather
than more effectively competing with more nimble and innovative Internet
players-making a convincing business case to invest in additional IMS services
difficult. CSPs need a service layer strategy that accelerates their time to
market for IP based multimedia capabilities and services, while maintaining
cost-effectiveness. They also need to expose more of their unique network
capabilities including IMS features to third party developers, thereby fostering
the multi-party ecosystems which will be necessary to drive network enabled
service innovations, and deliver unique advantages that the Internet players
will struggle to match.
Over the next several years, IP based
network architectures such as IMS will dissolve the boundaries between the web
and telecom domains, especially as mobile operators deploy all IP based 4G
networks such as LTE (long term tvolution). CSPs are also planning to use IMS to
deliver a more cost effective architecture for carrier-grade networking,
reliability, accounting, and security to a range of multimedia services. The
idea is to have an 'industrial strength' IP based network control platform on
which global enterprises, consumers as well as content providers can always have
access to converged web-telecom services regardless of where they are, and what
type of 'screen' they may be in front of. However, it is critical to understand
that IMS may be a long term solution based on the rationalization of standards,
the availability of devices and applications. Since there is no short term
'killer application' to justify making additional IMS application development
and deployment a top priority, a group of CSPs, device manufacturers, and
network equipment providers (NEP) have banded together to form the 'one voice
initiative' in an effort to standardize how voice and SMS applications are to be
offered on IMS networks. The need for voice and SMS over IMS becomes even more
critical for those CSPs launching all IP based 4G networks such as LTE.
Retake the Lead
With all the multimedia, social networking, and IP communication services
available on the Internet today (and all the services available for free or for
an extremely low cost) along with their rapidly declining voice ARPU businesses,
CSPs cannot afford to wait for the wide-scale deployment of IMS. The competition
from Internet as well as increasingly from the cable operators is very real, and
needs to be met head-on with comparable or superior offerings. CSPs have an
opportunity to attract and build highly valuable partner ecosystems that will
help them innovate beyond the current leading Internet businesses. By matching
the kinds of services that Internet companies provide, and then adding
telecommunication services that the Internet leaders can't match, CSPs can
retake the lead. But to do this, they must incorporate quality, reliability,
security, content protection, and accounting/billing into their offerings among
other things.
The New Vision
Traditional CSP infrastructures need a standard-based, easily accessible
service layer that makes key underlying capabilities-such as presence, location,
charging, and messaging-available, so that partners can incorporate them into
their own offerings. This standards-based service layer-ideally built on a
proven and pre-integrated service delivery platform (SDP) infrastructure-must be
practical enough to be delivered rapidly and with minimal risk. It should
leverage the networks, IT infrastructures, and skill sets that CSP organizations
already have, and it must also provide a fast path to revenue that justifies the
business case. The goal is to transform the service layer before implementing
IMS so that services are no longer network-specific, but 'network-agnostic' and
able to traverse IP based domains fluidly.
With an open, standards based converged
application platform, third party developers and partners can integrate their
own content and applications with specific underlying capabilities that users
can request, configure, and interact with on demand. In addition, partners can
create and quickly take to market well defined SOA based services, as the
services incorporate key business requirements charging, policy execution, and
device management.
Raghav Sahgal
The author is vice president, Asia Pacific and Japan, Oracle Communications
vadmail@cybermedia.co.in
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