IP Makes the World Go Round By New World Telecommunications Limited

Transcription

1 TELECOM NETWORK 104 IP Makes the World Go Round By New World Telecommunications Limited The way we live, play and work in Hong Kong has changed tremendously over the past few years. Internet telephony, instant messages, broadband TV and wireless Internet roaming, unknown until recently and often written about as fictional dreams in futuristic movies such as Star Trek, have now become part of our daily vocabulary. What has made these applications so popular today? Although it helps that they are cost-effectiveness and convenient, the chief catalyst lies in two letters: IP. Reasons for Success Standing for Internet Protocol, IP essentially defines the way information is sent over a network. In spite of the current fanfare over IP, it is not the only method for network communication and neither is it necessarily the best. For example, Novell s IPX and the telecommunication industry s X.25 are viable alternatives with their own merits. But IP s eventual success and its mass adoption were founded on two key qualities. The first was that it was, and still is, essentially free. That meant technologists could build new protocols based on IP without having to seek permissions from other parties a reason why the Internet was founded on IP. The second was its simple design, allowing both visionaries and entrepreneurs to build complex applications around it to do more. Together, these factors fuelled the creation of new innovative applications that challenge the way we communicate and interact today. New Voice of IP This challenge is best described in voice communications. Many consumers and business users today are deploying Voice-over-IP applications (VoIP) to communicate more cost-effectively with their counterparts across geographi-

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3 106 TELECOM NETWORK cal boundaries. This is especially attractive for many Hong Kong-based businesses that are going regional and multinational companies who want to rein in their expensive IDD costs. In turn, the adoption of VoIP-based offerings as an alternative has made IDD charges competitive and in line with market needs, making it less costly for businesses to talk to regional or international customers. Now with cities looking to adopt wireless technologies such as WiMAX, IP s penetration in voice communications is set to go even further. Such wide area applications allow consumers and businesses to easily use IP for their voice communication needs, wirelessly. Improving Lives IP has changed the way we live by providing new online versions of established consumer services. Take broadband-based IP TV and IP radios for example. Today, they form a consistent feature of many Hong Kong homes. And new appliances, such as IP-enabled refrigerators, are being designed that use IP innovatively to provide enhance customer loyalty though better customer service and product reliability. These devices can, for instance, inform service providers of the need to maintain, provide warning of imminent breakdown, allow users to surf the Internet for possible recipes and even inform them about the need to replenish depleting stocks. Written communication has changed as well. Today, sending s and talking over Instant Messenger (IM) applications are routine for many people in Hong Kong. At the same time, these applications will also make video conferencing a feature for the masses and not just for the large businesses who could afford the sky-high prices that used to be charged. Honing Business Competitiveness IP has not only driven down costs but has helped Hong Kong businesses to sharpen their competitiveness and the ability to take advantage of market opportunities, while meeting the increasing demands of today s customers. This is best seen in help desk outsourcing, where round the clock attention to

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5 108 TELECOM NETWORK customer problems is given from cost-effective locations like China, India and the Philippines. Infrastructure or applications such as are now maintained and managed through IP-based hosted services, allowing businesses to concentrate on their core strengths and not be sidelined by upgrade or maintenance worries. These developments have contributed to boosting the pace of globalization and have made it easier for entrepreneurs to start innovative lines of business and compete with the big players. Driving Convergence IP is now fuelling the convergence in the telecommunications industry and reshaping the entire industry. The idea of convergence in telecommunications is not new. It is both intuitive and simple: delivery of voice, video and data over a single access method. The problem has been to identify a protocol that allows this that is both robust and ubiquitous. IP provides such a solution and it has been proven and widely deployed. Through IP, established fixed line operators can now offer customers both traditional telecommunication services, such as IDD services, and new communication services that combine voice, video and data, such as VoIP or video conferencing over existing broadband infrastructure. With the city-wide or region-wide deployment of wireless IP standards already begun around the region, the same services can be also made accessible to customers over the air, allowing them constant access to these services whenever and wherever they need them. In the past one of the most important hurdles facing convergence has been customer adoption. Customers will need to see the value of new services before adopting them en masse. IP s versatility allows the creation of innovative value-added services that can enhance customer experience, providing operators the ideal opportunity to improve customer loyalty and drive adoption while increasing their value at the same time.

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7 110 TELECOM NETWORK NWT Paves IP Path Instead of waiting on the sidelines, NWT has chosen to embrace IP. Over the past years, NWT has pioneered the launch of numerous innovative services, such as the recent Next Generation Network and MPLS IP-VPN services, through its partnerships with Nortel Networks and China Telecom. The launch of NWT s pioneering Managed Network services delivers a host of end-to-end telecommunications and IT solutions tailored for Hong Kong and regional businesses. NWT s NetTalk Digital Telephony offering continues to enjoy a high rate of adoption from consumers and businesses who want a less expensive but more manageable way to communicate. The company has also recently launched services such as the NWT Hosted Exchange, a comprehensive managed solution with hosted and mobile services. Hosted Exchange offers value-added benefits to Hong Kong companies that want to concentrate on their core business and not worry about IT key security patches and new upgrade versions. Together these applications and services allow Hong Kong companies to expand their businesses and become effective competitors in a global marketplace. Future in IMS NWT believes that IP will continue to shape Hong Kong s future, and it believes that future lies in IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which provides both mobile and fixed multimedia services and extends the concept of convergence further. The aim of IMS is to provide both current and future services over the Internet, using both mobile and fixed infrastructure. Essentially, that means anyone can communicate with anyone else through multimedia means from anywhere and at anytime. This, as one can imagine, offers all kinds of conveniences and cost benefits to users. It also allows Hong Kong businesses, in particular, to meet the future demands of a competitive and globalized market.

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