@ Perspective 2010: Operators not deploying new networks without new services

FRISCO, Texas–Despite all of the operating efficiencies that can be gained from deploying all Internet Protocol networks, carriers aren’t going to implement the huge undertaking unless they can offer new services with new pricing plans on the networks, carriers said in a far-ranging panel at Perspective 2010, sponsored by Genband.
“Everything that can be will be IP-based, mobile and personalized,” said Mark Iannuzzi, president and CEO of TelNet Worldwide, a Michigan-based competitive LEC and Internet service provider that focuses on businesses. Beyond mobile handsets, enterprises also are going to adopt cloud-based services.
Service providers looking for network solutions will balance best-of-breed solutions with end-to-end services, the operators on the panel said. While best-of-breed services are good for niche applications, end-to-end solutions are important because they are easier to deploy. “You have to look at best-of-breed because so much changes so fast,” Iannuzzi said. “But we go to our partners first to see what they can do.”
Service providers are moving from legacy TDM to SIP-based communications, but the process takes time, operators said. More importantly, carriers are not going to rip out expensive networks just to deploy the same types of services, said Tim Dwight, principal member of the technical staff at Verizon Communications Inc. “There has to be a new service driver, new revenue. IMS (Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystems) will support old services, yes, but we’re only building them to offer new services.” In other words, operators have already spent huge amounts of capital to deploy new capabilities on the network, and those networks are capable of offering existing services. An operator is not going to re-build a network just to offer the same services it already can.
A customer that uses communications to turn on gas at the gas station pump doesn’t care that IP-based communications will enable find me, follow me features, said Don Poe, director of engineering at Telepacific, a CLEC.
Fixed-mobile convergence will allow smaller operators to innovate, said TelNet’s Iannuzzi. “It’s a place for us to show our creativity.”
For example, Pac-West Telecomm Inc., which provides wholesale communications services, launched Telastic, an on-demand carrier service enabler using Genband technology, that allows carriers to offer services like video voice messaging, said Hal Turner, president and CEO of the company. Smart phones can be used for four-digit dialing inside the office, he said.
For its part, even though Genband only receives 10% of its revenue from TDM services, there aren’t really any expenses associated with the technology, said Genband President and CEO Charlie Vogt, noting that R&D dollars are spent on innovation, not legacy equipment. The reality is that carriers will continue to build parallel networks and at some point, collapse their old networks, but the process takes time, Vogt said.
Since its $182 million acquisition of Nortel’s Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions (CVAS) business, Genband is now the world’s leading CVAS provider, supplying 600 service providers and two-thirds of the top 100 largest operators. The company is planning to marry the nimbleness of Genband with the discipline of Nortel, said Keith Landau, chief product officer at the company.