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In the quest to develop an Information society evolution to FMC era is a natural progression everywhere not just in India, says Ramdev Sharma, CTO, Huawei Technologies on the adoption of FMC globally
“The first stage is termed as “All IP based FMC” networks and will happen in next 3-5 years (2005-2010). The second stage of transformation is termed as “Ambient Ubiquitous Networks and is contemplated to be accomplished in next 5-10 years (2010-2015). The future services will bear features such as multimedia, always online, seamless and right for the users” says Ramdev Sharma
Ramdev in his interaction with Idhries Ahmad of CIOL also explains how Huawei products in the FMC line, trends in global FMC space and how FMC will help to develop a true information society
How does Huawei look at the Concept of Fixed Mobile Convergence. What are the products that Huawei has in the segement?
The basic premise of Fixed Mobile convergence is that any one can access any service, any time any where and in any environment to realize the objective of creating an information society or digital society.
Convergence in itself is a very complex phenomenon. There is an industry convergence and there is convergence of technologies. Industries like Telecom, IT & Applications, Media & Entertainment and Electronics (TIME) are converging to serve the telecom consumers which otherwise has been a territory served by the traditional telcos. Technology convergence signifies that networks are converging, services are converging and there are myriads of new multimedia services, terminals are converging as they become more and more intelligent & mobile. Therefore, FMC is just not a mere convergence of fixed & mobile networks rather it is more comprehensive and intricate.
Convergence has thrown open a plethora of challenges for the traditional telcos that are threatening them to lose the dominant position in the telecom value chain that they have been enjoying so far. To overcome these challenges and to retain their position the telcos need to adopt transformation. They need to transform their business strategies, their service portfolio and of course networks. The network transformation is forecasted to be accomplished in two stages.
The first stage is termed as “All IP based FMC” networks and will happen in next 3-5 years (2005-2010). The second stage of transformation is termed as “Ambient Ubiquitous Networks and is contemplated to be accomplished in next 5-10 years (2010-2015). The future services will bear features such as multimedia, always online, seamless and right for the users.
And the networks will adopt characteristics like broadband, convergence, ubiquitous, and intelligent context aware. It will be at this stage that the basic premise of FMC, stated at the outset, is expected to be realized. Countries world over has set one or the other agenda to transform to build Ambient Ubiquitous Networks to realize the vision of an information society.
How do you see the adoption of FMC happening globally? And where do you see Indian in the space?
FMC transformation by telcos varies from region to region, country to country and even operator to operator depending on their strategies, capabilities and marketing & competition environment. Transformation as described above is an evolutionary processes something that can not be accomplished overnight, in weeks or months. It will take years as indicated above. It is exciting to witness these trends of transformation around us hear in India as some of the telcos have started migration by implementing soft switched based Next Generation Networks. This forms the foundation for moving to the FMC era. Huawei is renowned as the largest supplier of Next Generation Networks (NGN) globally. According to Dittberner, a leading research and advisory firm Huawei leads the global NGN market with a market share of over 28%.
What are the factors driving and hampering FMC deployments in India
Governments, world over including India want to leverage ICT to enhance the efficiency of governance and also solve the social problems cost effectively that are plaguing the global society.
One common vision is development of an ICT enabled society termed as an Information Society. Information society provides a digital life style where every one, individuals and devices, are digitally interconnected; be it the personal lives, social lives or professional work lives.
The users are looking for new service experience which is right for them and convenient to use, the telcos and service providers are looking for improving their operational efficiencies, new revenue generating steams and for ensuring consistent top line & bottom line growth. The most compelling driver are the market forces that are mandating the governments to gain economic supremacy and the telcos to differentiate and innovate to provide multimedia service experience to the consumers.
What are the major trends in FMC deployments (India and abroad)
Transformation as described above is an evolutionary processes something that can not be accomplished overnight, in weeks or months. It will take years as indicated above. Large number of operators such as BT, TI, FT, NTT, KPN etc especially in developed telecom economies has already started adoption of transformation of their telecom. It is exciting to witness these trends of transformation around us hear in India as some of the telcos have started migration by implementing soft switched based Next Generation Networks. This forms the foundation for moving to the of FMC era. Legacy TDM network are giving way to packet switched networks; therefore ALL IP & FMC becomes a crucial development trend of current networks.
To realize “All IP based FMC”, telecom networks are set to under-go large scale revamp right from access layer through the bearer layer to Core, service and application layers. Network will move away from a horizontal style to a stove kind of architecture providing for segregation of the service and network layer. This will facilitate flexibility in integrating newer services in future without any changes in the network apart from simplifying the network.
How many operators has Huawei worked with with regards to FMC deployments (currently in trail or done) and how has been the response like. I mean challenges in deploying FMC architecture.
Huawei is a leader in providing next generation telecom networks, technologies & solutions in wireless, wire line and IP domain with operations in more than 100 countries worldwide including “All IP IMS based Fixed Mobile Convergence” networks. Huawei has attained the distinction of being the strategic partner of 31 of the world’s top 50 operators such as British Telecom, Vodafone, KPN, Telefonica, China Mobile etc. The products & solutions offered by Huawei are extensively tested in the field across the world including India in most extreme climatic & environmental conditions.
For the traditional telcos, this era of convergence is associated with a plethora of challenges of financial, regulatory, operational and business model implications. In order to overcome these challenges and to retain their prominent top position in the value chain the telcos need to transform. Rural telecom penetration, proliferation of broadband, migration to all IP networks, ubiquitous & pervasive communications and advanced wireless technologies such as 3G UMTS and WiMAX are the hot trends that will be catalytic for this transformation, for development of the info-structure to build an information society in India.
What has been the impact of FMC on cellular operators
FMC is the only way foreword for all the telcos if they want to retain the dominant position in the telecom value chain. It is only a matter of time when they fully accomplish it which depends on their capability, market & competition environment and long term vision.
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