Going nowhere fast: Investments in core infrastructure put pressure on services

The build-out in core infrastructure has put Canada at a crossroads. Fixed broadband penetration is high, and improvements are being made on the delivery of standardized compression and increased processing power. On the cellular front 4G, properly known as IMT-Advanced, is still a few years out, but 3G is delivering on some impressive speeds, and 3.5G and WiMAX are set to make things interesting. As a result, the debate is beginning to shift from "pipe hype" to how advanced telecommunications services might transform society.Bernard Courtois, president and CEO of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), feels that the debate can go one of two ways."We can discuss whether the quality and capacity are going to keep up with our needs, or we can ask ourselves what we are going to do with the broadband we have."Courtois believes that Canada's focus in the 1990s on global leadership in telecommunications has downshifted. Canadian telecom is less of a story, both internationally and domestically. As a result, there is reduced public awareness. There is a well-publicized productivity gap with the US, and the low adoption of new technologies by small and medium businesses (SMEs).Past studies suggest that on an employee basis Canadian SMEs invest only half of what their US counterparts do in information and communication technology (ICT). This may be changing, however, for two very compelling reasons. The first is macro-economic: the strength in our dollar. The second involves new marketing from carriers.Joe Mosher, vice president of residential markets for Bell Aliant, says that carriers are now confident enough to take a purely IP-based message to their customers."This is not technology for technology's sake," he says. "We're moving from access to utility."Mosher is coming from the residential side, but agrees with ITAC's Courtois that discussions of broadband penetration, so prevalent in the last decade, are becoming moot."In the next three years broadband penetration will hit practical saturation...at around 70%," he says. "Now with this critical mass we shift from delivering Internet services to being an IP-centric business."Mosher believes that IP will proliferate through all layers of the network. With so much being IP-based - transport, access, applications, trouble management and content - a company like Bell Aliant can then market a range of services beyond straight high-speed Internet. VoIP is by now familiar, but IPTV is on the move, as is IP media delivered as part of on-demand, closed networks. These separate "non-Internet" systems allow a carrier to secure deals with content providers backed up with protection for rights and licenses. Despite what might appear to be a slowing requirement for core infrastructure investment, the emergence of fixed mobile convergence (FMC) changes the rules of the game. FMC, using the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) framework, not only requires infrastructure upgrades, its raison d'être isn't about the core, but services running across multiple networks and on multiple devices, or end-user terminals seamlessly. Eric Bezille, marketing lead for IMS and fixed/mobile convergence at Nortel Networks Corp., believes that IMS - a framework for delivering IP-based media across multiple networks - is getting good support from industry. The challenge is to line up all the equipment and make sure it's compliant."We want to have end-user devices that are up to standard for interoperability. The same is true for applications - we have a full set for carriers to address the enterprise," he says. Where does Canada fit into the broader adoption level of FMC and the IMS framework? Many are suggesting that the SME community in particular is waiting for this new operating environment to solidify before making the infrastructure upgrades. .Bezille is pretty clear on what the future looks like, though."You use a set of applications on one core network to enable fixed/mobile convergence," he says. "The end-user can then be followed through all devices, all day long. IMS is helping with this because it provides one place for user data."Presence is a key enabler for true seamless mobility in a multiple network/device setting, and this appears to be lacking at this point. IMS is central to bringing presence to IPTV and other IP-based media applications, and it's not yet ready for prime time, particularly on the wireless side of the network equation. The core infrastructure is being built so that service will follow users, and for this to happen there is still work to do on mobile wireless networks. However, advances are being made in this area, even if they appear somewhat small today. A simple example of this is Rogers Communications Inc.'s second line voice service (SLVS), which it recently launched. It allows for two numbers on one wireless phone. This is not radical in the fixed-line world, but wireless allows for unique advantages, such as separate area codes.Irv Witte, vice president of business marketing for Rogers Wireless, points out that such a relatively simple option involves fairly advanced technology for billing, provisioning, and voice mail integration. "For billing we needed a new call case scenario, with the customer receiving one document with the two numbers split out, like on a credit card statement. For provisioning, the customer can select for preferred area codes and the number is activated. Automating this was a lot of work, because it has to get into the billing stream. And for voicemail boxes integration was required, with separate outbound greetings, but one box."In many ways, it's the mobile equipment makers and the wireless carriers who are delivering on core infrastructure, and they're doing it through application-heavy services. And here the jury is still out on where we're going, because fixed-line providers may find themselves somewhat dependant on the convergence capabilities of mobile networks. In the case of Rogers SLVS, for example, the functionality is a relatively obscure part of the GSM specifications. Telus Corp. and Bell Canada are on CDMA, and have yet to come forward with a similar offering.For such a system to work, centralized presence capabilities require a single aggregate point. Within a more complex environment that supports IMS, this point can be queried by other applications. Presence can then be displayed for anything that is IP-based, and that includes fixed environments at home or business."We can go from 3G to Wi-Fi without service interruption on the call," says Nortel's Bezille. "Single device service is one thing, but we can also go from starting a call on a 3G phone, coming into the office, then press a button on a fixed device and the call will drop from mobile to fixed."Complete IMS deployment requires IP availability on all mobile phones, and services delivery for IMS have not been so impressive as of yet. There are also security concerns. But full IMS will happen for both GSM and CDMA, and there are solid business plans behind fixed-mobile convergence. As things heat up there may be a fight over IP backhaul, with the fixed-line infrastructure providers trying to take some coin from the wireless carriers. It may also force regulators finally to give up on the notion that communication can somehow be determined, and licensed, based on whether the use is commercial or personal.This, in fact, may be what ITAC is hoping for in terms of how Canada can find its way and address the low ICT adoption rates in the SME space. Here, more than in larger organizations, the relationship of personal life to work life is blurred. And although we don't want work to invade or control all aspects of our life, modern telecommunications can certainly provide us with more innovative ways of running our businesses, and thus increase our productivity as a nation.

Going nowhere fast: Investments in core infrastructure put pressure on services

News | October 3, 2007

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