Hi Ken,
I think you meant to address your message to ftth and John, but I'm pleased that you mentioned me, in any event.
re: "I just have trouble including Cisco in the Telecom arena, being an old phone guy myself."
From one old phone guy to another old phone guy, take it from me, that...
... Cisco, along with a long list of startups with funny-sounding names, may already be playing a larger part in supplanting traditional telecom platforms than many observers are willing to make themselves aware of. And this holds true, not only in the desktop IP-phone-over-Ethernet-LAN arena and across enterprise intranets, but in carrier networks serving all classifications of end users, as well.
Telecom - all three forms: voice, data and video, and then some - as we once knew it, has already begun to morph from the legacy switched model that you are probably referring to, where NT, LU and ALA have been dominant over past decades. The now-surviving carriers of the last wave of failures who don't adopt platforms that are much leaner, and based primarily on IP, will find themselves falling first in a new wave of failures, especially as the last wave re-surfaces from BK with clean balance sheets and platforms that weigh only a tenth as much as the incumbents'.
If you investigate the latest round of notable national and international carrier developments, especially by <surprisingly> some of the largest Euro and Far East Carriers - and Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs), and other ISP variants worldwide - you will find that the trend to implement converged services over IP, especially VoIP at this time, is taking hold at an astonishing rate. Even the Top-3 IXCs have taken notice and announced their own programs for offering IP voice. Only now, the Top-3 are no longer trialing the stuff, they are doing national rollouts.
IP Centrex, alone, represents an avenue into IP voice which the IXCs and alternative local providers will very likely use to bypass incumbent LECs, from a distance, through enterprise Optical Ethernet Networks and consumer broadband connections. There are even inexpensive IP adapters that allow broadband users to roll their own VoIP solutions with standard analog phones. E.g., see the Vonage story below, where they are now supporting local number portability (LNP), and their web site at www.vonage.com for a description of "how it works." Guess whose voice adapters they are using to allow end users to attach analog phones to cable- and dsl- modems in their homes and offices? Cisco's.
Let me offer these stories from the Oct.10 New Telephony Web Site, alone, which you can click on at: newtelephony.com site:
- VON Products: Expectations, Surprises
- Sprint Debuts Managed IP PBX Service
- Border Patrol: New Products Bolster VoIP Security
- IP Centrex Services Getting Traction
- Telia Launches Broad IP Centrex Service
- Vonage Breaks New Ground with LNP
- LifeCare Cuts Costs with MPLS VPN
- OTHER VOICES: So, You Want To Replace Your PBX?
- Asia Strategies: Who's Winning, Who's Not?
- Two More Providers Enter IP Centrex Arena
- Broadwing Offers IP Video Conferencing
- Vocera Unveils Wireless VoIP "Badge"
- NMS Echo Cancellation Stands Alone
- Acme Packet at Point of H.323 Support
I found the following story particularly telling for the scope and reach that Telecom Italia has already achieved in their deployment of VoIP. Note who the vendors are in this case. As in many of the stories cited above, Cisco is playing a prominent role in this one, along with Italtel.
===
TELECOM ITALIA TAKES EUROPE'S BIGGEST STEP IN VOICE OVER IP (VoIP) WITH CISCO SYSTEMS AND ITALTEL
100% of Telecom Italia's national Rome-Milan voice calls and 50% of its international European voice calls now run over a converged "Voice over IP/MPLS1" network
ROME, Italy, 9 October 2002 --As of today, 100% of Telecom Italia's telephone calls made between Italy's capital city, Rome, and its industrial capital, Milan, as well as 50% of all Telecom Italia's International European telephone calls, travel over the Internet Protocol (IP) network. This represents over 3 billion minutes of telephone calls a year running over a Voice over IP (VoIP) solution based on technology from Cisco Systems and implemented by Italtel.
Operating expenses savings, improved return on assets and the ability to quickly roll-out new services were the main reasons that Telecom Italia decided to merge its voice and data networks onto an IP backbone. The IP network uses MPLS "Class of Service" features (ie. the ability to prioritize network traffic) to give different priorities to voice and data so that the highest quality of service can be ensured. The project will allow Telecom Italia to save two thirds of its transit operating expenses over the forthcoming years.
Similar to most incumbent carriers, Telecom Italia has been running a network based on traditional circuit switched connections in parallel with another one for data/Internet traffic based on the Internet protocol (IP). With the newly deployed Cisco MGX 8000 Voice Gateways and Italtel's Multi-service Solution (converged VoIP and data services), both voice and data/Internet traffic will now be based on standard IP protocol.
Telecom Italia will be able to maximize its capital expenditure more effectively through the newly converged IP data and voice network. The old circuit switched network used for voice is based on 66 national transit switches. In contrast, the new Cisco Systems and Italtel's VoIP solution allows Telecom Italia to drive all of its transit traffic with only 24 new IP Exchanges. These IP Exchanges use the flexibility and resiliency of the IP/MPLS national infrastructure and enable Telecom Italia to operate the network and launch new revenue generating voice, video and data services much more easily. Based on the same concepts, the Telecom Italia Multiservice Pan-European Backbone supports the integrated transport of both voice (wholesale, carrier, etc.) and data services, across the main European cities and North America.
"We chose VoIP because we could save two thirds of our transit operating expenses and give our customers and shareholders a better service. By the end of 2003, we estimate that 80% of Telecom Italia's transit voice traffic will travel over the Cisco Systems and Italtel Multi-service solution. We chose Cisco Systems and Italtel because they had the most reliable solution. Cisco Systems has more experience in IP technology and VoIP than any other infrastructure company and the partnership with Italtel provides additional expertise in the switching carrier environment. Cisco Systems and Italtel also used our existing infrastructure, which meant we didn't have to reinvent the wheel and could save money on implementation," said Stefano Pileri, head of Telecom Italia's domestic network.
CEO Cisco Systems Italia and Vice President Cisco Systems Inc., Stefano Venturi said, "Our work with Telecom Italia and Italtel demonstrates that a single converged IP network makes economic sense. It also shows that Cisco Systems and Italtel's VoIP solution scales to meet the needs of a country. Cisco is committed to helping service providers evolve their business to more efficient and profitable packet based networks and we are totally focused on providing high availability and highly resilient 'carrier' class technology."
"The national backbone," - added Patrizia Grieco, Italtel's Chief Operating Officer - "is the consequence of a major investment by Cisco Systems and Italtel in VoIP technology started in 2000 that has brought together voice and data expertise to implement carrier grade solutions, strongly supported by Telecom Italia, true to its traditions of innovations in leading edge network solutions and services."
As outlined at the "Technology Day" meeting with the Financial Community, held on July 19th, Telecom Italia is proceeding with the roll-out of this project as part of its overall strategy. Over the next year, Cisco Systems and Italtel will work on the implementation of local switches connecting the edge of the Telecom Italia network (telephone lines) to the core. This will enable local calls to share a single IP network with data traffic and allow Telecom Italia to benefit from further operating expense savings.
1. MPLS is a protocol that enables network traffic (voice, data and video) to prioritized.
2. Telecom Italia has over 25 million customers in Italy.
=====
The above was not intended to express my personal opinion about any particular company, whether for reasons of product quality or in terms of their investment grade. Rather, it was only to put what you stated about one particular company into what I consider to be its proper perspective.
FAC |
