PTC Eye on Trends: Video and Mobility Take Center Stage
“The PTC conference in January could not be better timed. Asia is where the major growth is and the Pacific has taken over from the Atlantic as the centre of telecom action. New innovations, explosion of video, rollout of broadband Internet have all combined to create an explosive demand for domestic and international communications. The industry leaders from operators, suppliers, academia, the Internet and content world will come together to meet, hear and discuss how each can carve a role for themselves in the current bonanza. So whether it is submarine cables, satellites, global connectivity, regional and island Internet development, the impact of video or other facets of the industry, the PTC conference in Hawaii will be the place to be in January.” -- John Hibbard, Member, PTC Board of Governors and CEO, Hibbard Consulting, Australia
It was bound to happen: full convergence in practice. We are moving well beyond the initial service and market testing triple play features. Beyond robust, widespread and competitive mobile voice and text. Beyond the very significant changes in music, news and other media/entertainment distribution across a host of telecommunications, broadcasting and ICT networks. Now, the extensive use of video in all forms and across all networks of communication, as well as the demand for high levels of enterprise and user mobility are defining the new core of telecommunications.
By Mark Hukill, Ph.D.
From YouTube to enterprise video communications on-demand, the shape of telecommunications networks and their interconnection are being radically altered. The integration of previously separate services and the staggeringly massive inter-combination of entire industries including telecoms, broadcasting and information are coalescing around the Internet and digital airwaves, across undersea cable and satellites, from carriers
to network peering to homes and offices, and indeed onto all IP platforms. And users are doing what they want, it their own way. Mergers and alliances continue apace. Acquisitions and expansions are global in nature. Besides the usual push from Western countries, Asian telcos are now investing heavily elsewhere including Africa. New partnerships and multiple partner projects abound. Market opportunities in rapidly expanding economies are plentiful. A mix of private investment and public funding is reaching lesserserved regions with more appropriate technologies tuned to local conditions. Regulation may not be keeping pace and it probably cannot, but it may at least not get in the way. It may even, in a rare fit of inspiration, provide a reasonable guide to promote further development, investment and a clear explication of market frameworks. The result? Far more users are actually getting what they want at a price they can afford. Advanced integrated service offerings across mature markets, with innovative delivery of personalized information and entertainment, are quickly becoming the order of the day. Even more dramatically, there are now a half billion more mobile subscribers worldwide, largely in lesser developed countries, where there was hardly any telecom access at all just a few years ago. Is this the dawn of a true transformation in telecommunications? It is now five years since the greatest down-turn ever experienced in the industry. “The boom-bust cycle raises the question of what’s in store over the next few years given we seem to be on the crest of a wave. Will it crash or will we all be able to surf it for another 5 years at least?” -- John Hibbard, Member, PTC Board of Governors and CEO, Hibbard Consulting, Australia
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