A study by SAP AG found that the use of Internet package exchange inter-networking is growing among mobile operators.
The study, sponsored by SAP and produced in conjunction with TelecomAsia, included more than 170 respondents across the globe and various aspects of telecom, including wireless (26% of participants), integrated (22.4%), wireline (12%) and wholesale (17.6%).
More than half of the participating operators (56%) said that they were connected to an IPX network, up from only 30% in 2011. The momentum of LTE network deployment has been a driver in the uptake of IPX interconnections as well, as IPX enables LTE roaming among other services.
“The uptake in IPX means faster, higher quality roaming capabilities for consumers and greater access to networks’ LTE spectrum offerings,” according to SAP.
“We’re seeing the transformation of IPX from a network to interconnect mobile communications service providers into a cloud that hosts a wide range of software defined services,” said Michael van Veen, business manager of IPX for SAP Mobile Services. “As LTE deployments continue, mobile operators are turning to IPX as a secure, private ecosystem for interconnections based on service hubs. With this approach, mobile operators have found they gain far shorter time-to-market, greater efficiency and long-term cost-savings, allowing them to move beyond voice and to richer communication services.”
The survey showed that voice is by far the most common service connected via IPX, with almost 80% of participants having already deployed voice capabilities. However, other services are catching up: 45.5% had deployed SMS over IPX, 42% had deployed video and 41% had deployed GRX.
SAP reported that signaling standards such as Diameter and SIGTRAN remained less common. Diameter IPX deployments were at 28.4% and SIGTRAN for IPX was at 35.2%.
As far as benefits, nearly 72% of the survey respondents said that support for LTE roaming or different commercial models was a significant benefit of IPX; SAP found that 34% of mobile operators were ready to offer LTE roaming as soon as they launched their LTE networks. More than 66% of participants said the greatest benefit was service assurance due to IPX being a privately managed, secure and cost-effective network.
The 170 survey respondents were spread across the globe, with 34% in Asia Pacific, 34% in the Americas, 20% in Europe and 5% in the Middle East and Africa.
