By Billy Teo
Wednesday, June 21 2006 12:56 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/communicasia/2006/0,39057962,39369340,00.htm

COMMUNICASIA, SINGAPORE--Broadband networks are changing the rules of the game for telecommunications companies and giving them new market opportunities, say delegates at Asia's largest infocomm show.

Speaking before an audience at CommunicAsia yesterday, Jeffrey Soong, CEO of Broadband Network Systems (BNS) said: "Broadband is changing the economics of entertainment, and we're seeing the evolution of entertainment distribution." BNS is a broadband TV solutions provider based in Hong Kong.

"These are exciting times we live in. Telcos now have the opportunity to leapfrog over traditional content owners," he said. But service providers must first learn how to position their network "as the pivotal point providing all entertainment needs".

Soong noted how entertainment used to be a passive, or "lean back" affair, for most consumers. Today, more people source for content on their own terms--enjoying the content on devices such as Apple Computer's iPod Video, or streaming video on their mobile phones.

These consumers are likely the younger generation, and sometimes described as "Me Media"--a user community that both produces and distributes its own content to popular portals such as MySpace and YouTube.

Soong added that 87 per cent of Americans between 12 and 17 years old are online, and more than half of them have created and uploaded digital content for the Internet.

By doing so, users like them are changing the economics of entertainment because they no longer simply consume what traditional content owners offer.

This creates an opportunity for service providers to pull in new consumers by delivering IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) services, beefed up with user-created content. In IPTV, broadcast-quality videos or television programs are streamed over an IP network, rather than over the air or cable.

Soong's advice to telcos is to ensure their IPTV services are "future-proof" by thinking about how they can make the content work on various devices that consumers now own, or carry.

He noted that IPTV services offering in the market today were designed over the last five years, where service providers had not anticipated the emergence of devices such as the iPod Video and the Slingbox device, which lets people watch TV programs over the Internet.

He said: "When we advise companies looking into providing IPTV services, we always ask them: What is your content? What is your technology platform for delivering this content? What about your network requirements, middleware and even software infrastructure to bring this about?"

Soong added: "You need a flexible platform to add new services quickly, introduce flexible business and pricing models, and facilitate new distribution mechanisms."

Telcos, for example, may need to offer IPTV services at a low cost, or for free, and support these offerings through online advertising because "the world is used to getting things for free", he said.

"You have to think out of the box, and consider how things will progress in five to ten years time," he added. "You just can't model after today's IPTV services."

Broadly speaking
While Soong underscored the potential of IPTV, Simon Naylor, Asia-Pacific vice president of Sonus Networks, was enthusiastic

about how voice over broadband (VoBB) services will benefit carriers as more people today use a multitude of devices to communicate.

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.