Bell on way to capturing the transformative potential of IP

BCE In. and Bell Canada CEO Michael Sabia praised the role IP will play in the telecommunications world in an October 5 speech he gave in Toronto at IP World Canada. Below is an excerpt from his speech. In the last decade, the communications sector accounted for 60% of Canada’s productivity growth. And we’re still at the beginning of the potential of these technologies. From computing capacity and networks to products and applications, the limits are not in sight. Intel’s latest 70-megabit chip has more than 500 million transistors. Each smaller than a virus. And a billion-transistor chip is in the cards by 2007. Networks are expanding exponentially in their speed and reach. Wireless. Satellite. Broadband. If the first 50 years of the information age were ruled by computers and circuit-switched networks, the next generation will belong to intelligent IP networks and high-value applications. That’s why at Bell, we’re moving beyond being a telecommunications company. Well on the road to becoming a communications integration company. A partner that brings together all the different communications services that customers want. Simpler for you to buy. To manage. To update as the technologies continue to evolve. We will continue to depend on our core strength – our ability to connect. And we will always invest in the quality and reliability of that connection, whether it’s data, voice, video. Wireline or wireless. But we will also use that robust, reliable, high-quality connection to deliver applications – information management – to customers in businesses of all sizes. The rich interactive, multimedia products and services that bring greater value and simplicity to you. IP is an essential element of the new world of communications. And or our competitiveness. As a country and as business leaders. No matter the sector. No matter the size of our organization. Because fundamentally, IP enables organizations to reduce operating costs. To improve performance, productivity and process. It also delivers business solutions that were not affordable – or even possible – in a circuit-switched world. The open standards of IP give customers unprecedented flexibility and control of technology solutions that solve their specific business problems. And IP’s simplicity and affordability extend the productivity dividend much further into the entire business community. In the past, smaller businesses simply have not had the budgets to buy – or the people to manage – complex private networks and sophisticated software. IP changes that. Simplifying. Enabling shared software. With applications hosted in the networks of advanced communications providers. Making possible the virtual CIO. For us at Bell, IP is here today. To enhance our competitiveness. And do the same for our customers. That’s why we are committed to IP. By the end of 2006, 100% of our core traffic will be carried on a pervasive, IP-based national network backbone. Over the same period, we’ll extend a full suite of IP-based products to 90% of our customer base. An aggressive timetable? Yes. But that’s exactly what we need. When the opportunity, for us and our customers, is so great. When we’re determined to be the leader. In Canada…and in North America. To be candid, I think the whole telecom industry – us included – has become too complex, too rigid, too cumbersome to serve customers the way they should be served. In some ways, that’s related to the nature of the traditional technologies. And the complex processes we have all built around them. But IP is the opportunity for telecom companies to take a new direction. To simplify and be more responsive to the customer. In our case, we’re moving to a single network. So, for example, the time it takes us to provide a service will drop from weeks to days. And we’ll give you more self-service capability. By the end of 2006, in fact, you will be able to install half our standard services over the web on a do-it-yourself basis. We’ll also have fewer and simpler products. As a result, we’ll be able to give our customers faster quotes. What takes weeks today will take just three days in the future. We’ll offer the option of hosted services for everything. Where we house and manage the services on your behalf. IP will also enable us to automate workflows. And that will mean simpler, consolidated billing for you. …And if you think that voice over IP is just a promise, thing about this. Bell is now approaching the 100,000 mark in IP voice lines installed to serve Canadian businesses. By the end of the year, we will have tripled our installed base…in just 12 months. But we’ve only just begun.

Bell on way to capturing the transformative potential of IP

News | 10/14/2004 4:00 am EDT

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