VoBB allows businesses and consumers to access IP telephony access services over broadband networks, he said, where service providers may, or may not, own the network.
He noted that the advantages of VoBB networks, compared to legacy networks, include lower costs of delivery, easy deployment and the ability to tap on a growing broadband user base.
Naylor explained: "VoBB is a key step toward next-generation network (NGN) and fixed-mobile convergence, which will create opportunities for carriers to generate and deliver the new services that are necessary for them to increase average revenue per user (ARPU)."
An IP-based broadband network, the NGN promises to deliver telecommunications services, data and other multimedia content over a single infrastructure.
Naylor believes the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) will emerge as the standards-based architecture and foundation for NGNs. IMS defines how IP-based multimedia services--the "triple-play" of voice, data and video--can be delivered while maintaining quality of service (QoS), billing and service integration.
"IMS is not about a specific product or set of products," he said. "It does not dictate the implementation of the NGN."
Naylro added that IMS will be able offer a converged service delivery model that is based on open standards, and with simplicity and flexibility that will starkly contrast with the highly-fragmented infrastructure of previous networks.
For example, he said, IMS will make it easier for a telco to offer consolidated billings for customers who use its broadband, mobile and fixed line services--unlike today where they get separate billings for each different service.
According to Umesh Kukreja, director of marketing from Atrica, IMS-based networks can also help developing countries such as India.
He noted that new broadband networks offer a competitive advantage for these markets because they would not have to deal with the limitations of legacy systems, such as copper-based network infrastructure.
And telcos may not even have to offer IPTV services to draw new customers.
Kukreja said: "Voice communications, as an alternative to satellite phones, can be a driver of broadband adoption in rural villages in India."
Billy Teo is a freelance IT writer who is based in Singapore.
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