For all operators, transitioning to IP is a critical business imperative. Wholesale providers can become their trusted partner, writes Oscar Ruiz. Co-sponsored feature: BT Global Markets

Oscar Ruiz: Mobile markets face more challenges than their fixed line counterparts
It is an industry truism that outside the large, former incumbent national flag carriers of the telecoms operator market few have the expertise, let alone the capital required, to effect timely and comprehensive transition to pure IP networks. However, IP, and in particular the new-wave of IP, has become the core upon which so much of operators’ future service portfolios will be delivered and operators that don’t have the expertise already need to acquire it from partners.
 
The wholesale provider base provides a source of capacity supply but the proposition from such providers needs to extend well beyond that to address the specific requirements of individual operators. When it comes to mobile, operators of all types are looking to wholesale providers to provide them with the capabilities and expertise they need to keep up with the pace of innovation, strip operational costs from their business and provide their users with simply a better service.
 
Mobile markets face more challenges than their fixed line counterparts as data traffic spirals out of control, although fixed line providers are also challenged in defining a strategy for fixed-mobile convergence and also need partners to underpin their portfolio moves.
 
Focusing on mobile operators, the landscape is changing rapidly as smartphones and tablets account for an ever-increasing share of the user base. Couple that with the increased rate of fixed to mobile conversion and mobile operators are faced with a heavy burden of investment in order to sustain their businesses. Regardless of whether they already operate a 3G network or are rolling out a network to provide their customers with broadband-access mobile IP, they are sure to see sustained and substantial growth in demand for capacity.
 
The move to LTE will not lessen that burden as the cost for licences and network construction will be significant and potentially only enable you to keep in touch with demand rather than address it for the long term. As a consequence, many operators need to take cost out of their networks and add functionality to excite their customers and keep them loyal.
 
Transition to IP 
 
BT Global Telecom Markets provides its IP Mobile set of services to enable operators to transition into the IP world and minimise the investment risk. The IP Mobile proposition is designed to help operators maximise their current assets and reap the benefits of IP migration. There are three key benefits to such an approach.
 
The first involves supporting an operator’s migration to IP without the requirement for further investment in existing TDM infrastructure. That enables maximised utilisation of current assets without limiting the possibility of entering the converged IP services market.
 
The second addresses the need to establish true interoperability with GSMA-compliant IP Exchange services. That helps operators: translate between legacy and new IP-based network environments; shift growth in traffic volume, services and reach from TDM to IP thereby eliminating the need to continue investment in legacy infrastructure and; migrate to IP at their own pace so their customers’ can be addressed as they become ready and as the operator is ready to invest capital.
 
The third set of benefits enables acceleration of an operator’s innovation in integrated IP-based application and voice applications. That involves the support of BT Global Telecom Markets’ full set of mobile-specific IPX and hubbing services to simplify access to numerous providers for new and established services and usage of BT Global Telecom Markets’ development platforms for enhanced and IP-based voice applications. Those allow operators to create new services to maximise their users’ experiences.

These aren’t designed to be lightweight services and instead provide an advanced range of capabilities to support the end-to-end range of mobile network solutions to help operators minimise cost and maximise opportunity as the market accelerates through this phase of transformation.
 
Many operators simply can’t do this on they're own, others don’t have the time to re-invent the expertise that others have previously pioneered and, as a consequence, a managed services approach is in demand. BT Global Telecom Markets provides exactly that with a catalogue of advanced managed services designed to support operator evolution. The portfolio includes:
 
BT Global IP Exchange (GIPX)
 
GIPX is a GSMA-compliant IP exchange service that provides operators with a resilient and high-quality IP Voice Hub with flexible hubbing models. Those models allow retention of existing carrier and partner relationships or handing them to BT in a full-service hub approach. The IP Exchange supports all necessary protocol conversions, reducing the need for investment in costly protocol and network upgrades thereby freeing up investment for innovative services instead.
 
The IP Exchange is embedded within BT’s interoperability portfolio which will also offer numbering and transaction management in addition to several service building blocks and developer platforms. The principle is to link the traditional switched world with the IP world, enabling operators to migrate to IP at their own pace while taking advantage of IP functionality.
 
A signalling and roaming hub  
 
The RoamConnect service provides a reliable signalling service of excellent quality delivered via a hub that reaches 622 mobile operators in 170 countries. Operator customers can choose between TDM (C7/SS7) or IP-based signalling (SigTran) or a blend of both to migrate signalling capabilities as required.
 
BT’s SMS Hubbing 
 
This service is designed for the seamless, convenient and high-quality delivery of messaging services to 480 networks for one-way transmission and 345 networks for two-way transmission. Competitively priced, the messaging hub service is fully GSMA-compliant and delivered to operators with one contract, one interconnect and one bill thereby enabling streamlining of operator messaging operations and cost saving through consolidation. On request, BT is able to enhance this proposition with data and financial clearing services, intelligent routing services and number portability management and support.
 
For operators the benefits are clearly defined. The IP Mobile proposition enables them to migrate fully to IP services without compromising end-to-end control and it can enhance quality and simplify infrastructure by using one exchange hub that provides the functionality of many. In addition, it enables operators to address changing market needs by actively phasing out legacy TDM infrastructure and offering new converged IP services at a time suited to them. They can eradicate maintenance costs and eliminate investment at the end of the lifecycle of their current TDM networks while launching IP offerings that are supported by a hub that simplifies interconnect management and enables consolidation of destinations and suppliers while supporting the ability to retain relationships directly with key partners.
 
IP Mobile is presented as a suite of services combined into one convenient proposition for operators looking to simplify their interconnection arrangements for all services. By using that suite, operators can save costs through migrating many small-band interconnection lines to one redundant high capacity connections and the integration of several services on that one connection.
 
Further advantages include availability and resilience since IP Mobile is backed by redundancy and SLAs. The consolidated systems infrastructure elements also require less maintenance and, in removing complexity, risk is reduced as well.
A further benefit to operators is that they need to manage just one partner with hubbing options for all related services thereby making it easier to manage growth and the risk associated with pricing. Those factors enable the commercial bundling of services from the first day with the option of technical and commercial interworking between those services to enhance operator customers’ experiences.
 
Last but most importantly of all, IP Mobile gives operators the ability to migrate from traditional to new-wave IP-based services in a dynamic way that matches each operator’s own investment priorities. The approach is flexible so, with IP Mobile, you can transform your business and stay competitive while providing your users the best possible service. GTB
 
Oscar Ruiz is president of Global Telecom Markets at BT Global Services