* Q&A with Bruce Trvalik, director of IMS Strategy for Sonus
Sonus Networks, which provides IP-based voice and multimedia gateways, switches and servers to leading service providers, says a push toward converged fixed and mobile networks will create new enterprise applications and reduce costs.
Based in Chelmsford, Mass., Sonus has among its customers Global Crossing, Earthlink, Vonage, AOL and Cingular. Two market research firms – Infonetics Research and Synergy Research – recently named Sonus first in marketshare for high-density media gateways and VoIP equipment used by carriers.
I recently interviewed Bruce Trvalik, director of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Strategy for Sonus, about trends he is seeing in the enterprise market. Here are excerpts from our conversation:
Q. What outlook do you see for IMS-based services in multinational corporations?
A. The consumer market is certainly huge, but every carrier I talk to tends to desire the enterprise customer the most because he is more likely to go for higher-end features. Right now, in fixed/mobile convergence, a lot of the energy is in the development of dual-mode mobile handsets [that can handle both 802.11 and cellular wireless]. Last year, a lot of the mobile carriers were opposed to fixed/mobile convergence because they saw this as a way for wireline carriers to steal their customers. Now mobile carriers are starting to see fixed/mobile convergence as a way for them to offer a bundle of services for the enterprise. In Europe, mobile carriers are starting to offer mobile over Wi-Fi at a reduced rate or zero rate, which is a pretty attractive way for the enterprise to cut costs. Before, mobile carriers saw Wi-Fi and WiMAX as a threat. Now they see they can provide access to enterprise applications from a variety of devices such as mobile phones.
Q. How are service providers gearing up to offer IMS-based services to the enterprise market?
A. Carriers often have customers who have mission-critical applications like Oracle or SAP. If they could IVR [interactive voice response] enable those applications as a special service for a particular big multinational, they would be reaching into the data world and enhancing existing services. Service providers don’t have to offer the brand new killer application. Instead, it may be taking a variety of ways that people already communicate and make them more usable, more successful and more convenient.
Q. Which service providers are being most aggressive about buying your IMS equipment – fixed or mobile?
A. Both. If you’re looking at the voice infrastructure from the core of a carrier’s network, mobile and fixed networks are not horribly different. Our origin was in fixed line carriers such as Global Crossing. Then we reached more into the consumer, voice over broadband play with Vonage, AOL and Earthlink. We have always believed that IP would start in the core and go off to the edges over time. Mobile is yet another access network. Mobile is where a lot of the growth is happening. Cingular is one of our biggest customers.
Q. What level of activity do you see among wireless carriers in the U.S. to develop IMS-based applications for the enterprise?
A. You’re going to see guys like Verizon and Cingular making moves in this area. You’re also going to see some alternative mobile carriers make a big impact with Wi-Fi and WiMAX Today’s mobile network is the only network with ubiquity. Carriers want to combine the high bandwidth of hot spots with the ubiquity of mobile. Then there are a lot of innovative things that mobile carriers can do.
Q. When are we going to see these new services for enterprise customers?
A. To offer really advanced services on mobile, you need broadband. Verizon has their EVDO [Evolution Data Optimized] service but they need to upgrade to EVDO Rev A [for faster speeds.] That’s starting to happen. Cingular uses the UMTS [Universal Mobile Telecommunications System] standard. Their IP services are really intended for data access or Web browsing, not for interactive multimedia. So what has happened is that the carriers like Cingular have to go back and do some standards development. Their technology doesn’t work as well if it is in a fast-moving vehicle like a car. Work is being done to address that. For now, they are looking at intermediate stuff. They will offer combinational services where they use IP to get content when they are in the range of a hotspot and TDM for voice.
Q. Are there any other trends you are seeing that affect corporate network managers?
A. The overall trend is bringing the communications together. Any sort of decision-maker in a company has a mobile phone today. You can’t guarantee that he is at his desk. He communicates via e-mail, but he doesn’t get all his e-mail on his mobile phone. He has a home office and a regular office. He uses SMS. He dials on the mobile phone. Right now he has to fuss around with so many different communication technologies. In the future, I think we’ll be adding more advanced features like the location of the device. Japan has done some amazing things with location services such as finding restaurants. We’re seeing some of those things showing up on Nextel, and Verizon is launching a similar service. We’re starting to see Google Maps on mobile devices. All of this stuff is coming together.
Q. What advice would you offer a corporate network manager evaluating wireless technology?
A. Everything is moving to IP. There is no double about that. In the corporate environment, I don’t think people look at TDM PBXs any more. All of that has moved to IP. Now office phones are going to IP. Mobile phones will be on IP. That will allow you to take advance of presence and to move things back and forth across devices.
In Europe, mobile carriers such as T Systems in Germany are clearly targeting multinationals such as Ford, Pfizer and DaimlerChrysler. Traditionally, these companies had each location negotiate with a local carrier. Then Deutsche Telekom laid out an IP network for its multinational customers and deployed Sonus equipment just for the purpose of terminating local calls. Within the corporation, they use Sonus equipment to manage calling and voice mail purely in IP. They only terminate to a PTT if they are terminating outside the corporation. They offer 10 IP services. Companies that don’t want to deal with the PTTs just sign a contract with Deutsche Telekom and their traffic just stays on DT’s IP network. For someone like DT, fixed/mobile convergence allows them to use Wi-Fi capability to deliver calls within the corporation and then hand off the mobile calls to T Systems.
Q. When will fixed/mobile convergence be prevalent?
A. This is the year for trails. The big driver is devices, which are not widely available here. 3GPP came out with standards for fixed/mobile convergence but we’re waiting for the devices. That will take most of 2006. 2007 is when you’ll see it becoming a part of carrier’s offerings.
