Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:25 AM GMT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent will continue to be the primary network infrastructure supplier to Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Alcatel-Lucent wins $6 bln Verizon Wireless deal
Alcatel-Lucent wins $6 bln Verizon Wireless deal
Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:25 AM GMT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucentwon a three-year contract worth $6 billion to supply Verizon Wireless with network equipment, software and services, the companies said on Monday.
Alcatel-Lucent will continue to be the primary network infrastructure supplier to Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communicationsand Vodafone Group Plc , they said.
Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:25 AM GMT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent will continue to be the primary network infrastructure supplier to Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Zyxel Launches IP PBX and Phone Range
Friday March 23, 06:44 AM
By Rik Turner
Zyxel Corp has entered the IP PBX market, launching a device for SMB and a range of phones, including a dual-mode cellular and WiFi handset.
The Taiwanese vendor of networking gear into the consumer, SoHo and SMB markets has unveiled the X6004, an IP PBX delivered in a 2U box that scales from 32 to 128 lines, beyond which we can stack up to five boxes, which means we can support up to 640 lines in a single stack, said James Walker, product manager for Zyxel in the UK and Ireland.
For PSTN break-out,
the device can be fitted with either a BRI or PRI card to interface with an ISDN link. Meanwhile for inter-office comms within the same company, an X6004 can be deployed in one office with a VPN or leased line link to the other, whereupon remote office workers can make four-digit calls to colleagues in the other office and have their calls routed out to the PSTN network through the IP PBX on the main site.
At the same time, Zyxel is launching a range of IP phones, including two deskphones, a basic and a more feature-rich, two DECT handsets, two different flavours of softphone -- basic and multimedia -- and the dual-mode V660. The latter runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and has quad-band GSM as well as 11b/g WiFi connectivity, WPA encryption and a SIP client for VoWiFi calling.
All these products are new areas for Hsinchu-based Zyxel, which until now has offer SIP-based WiFi phones only. The DECT phones are a response to requests for less power-consuming cordless devices than WiFi handsets, and to support them on the infrastructure side, said Walker, the company will be adding DECT to its DSL/WiFi routers for the residential market in the coming months.
The Zyxel exec said the company has two target markets for the phones, namely the SME/SMB space up to 640 users, in which case it will go through its channel partners and offer them in conjunction with the X6004, and service providers for the consumer/residential market.
Were not aiming them at mobile operators, mainstream telcos or the big retail chains like [the UKs] Carphone Warehouse (LSE: CPW.L - news) , as the Nokias and Motorolas do, said Walker. Rather well target service providers who take our DSLAMs and CPE kit for DSL services so that they can offer them as a bundle for home users.
No pricing information was available for any of the new products, which have been formally launched but will actually go on general availability in the third quarter in North America and Europe.
Friday March 23, 06:44 AM
By Rik Turner
Zyxel Corp has entered the IP PBX market, launching a device for SMB and a range of phones, including a dual-mode cellular and WiFi handset.
The Taiwanese vendor of networking gear into the consumer, SoHo and SMB markets has unveiled the X6004, an IP PBX delivered in a 2U box that scales from 32 to 128 lines, beyond which we can stack up to five boxes, which means we can support up to 640 lines in a single stack, said James Walker, product manager for Zyxel in the UK and Ireland.
For PSTN break-out,
the device can be fitted with either a BRI or PRI card to interface with an ISDN link. Meanwhile for inter-office comms within the same company, an X6004 can be deployed in one office with a VPN or leased line link to the other, whereupon remote office workers can make four-digit calls to colleagues in the other office and have their calls routed out to the PSTN network through the IP PBX on the main site.
At the same time, Zyxel is launching a range of IP phones, including two deskphones, a basic and a more feature-rich, two DECT handsets, two different flavours of softphone -- basic and multimedia -- and the dual-mode V660. The latter runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and has quad-band GSM as well as 11b/g WiFi connectivity, WPA encryption and a SIP client for VoWiFi calling.
All these products are new areas for Hsinchu-based Zyxel, which until now has offer SIP-based WiFi phones only. The DECT phones are a response to requests for less power-consuming cordless devices than WiFi handsets, and to support them on the infrastructure side, said Walker, the company will be adding DECT to its DSL/WiFi routers for the residential market in the coming months.
The Zyxel exec said the company has two target markets for the phones, namely the SME/SMB space up to 640 users, in which case it will go through its channel partners and offer them in conjunction with the X6004, and service providers for the consumer/residential market.
Were not aiming them at mobile operators, mainstream telcos or the big retail chains like [the UKs] Carphone Warehouse (LSE: CPW.L - news) , as the Nokias and Motorolas do, said Walker. Rather well target service providers who take our DSLAMs and CPE kit for DSL services so that they can offer them as a bundle for home users.
No pricing information was available for any of the new products, which have been formally launched but will actually go on general availability in the third quarter in North America and Europe.
FCC eases wireless Web rules
FCC eases wireless Web rules
From Bloomberg News
March 23, 2007
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday eased rules on wireless Internet services sold by telecommunications companies including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. The wireless broadband order frees Internet access on hand-held devices from "commercial mobile radio service" rules that apply to wireless telephone services. Thursday's ruling subjects all wireless Internet services to the same rules as land line broadband access offered by telephone companies and cable providers such as Comcast Corp. The measure will encourage broadband investment by letting wireless Internet carriers compete on a level playing field with other high-speed providers, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said. The commission also invited public comment on whether to write net neutrality rules that would bar all broadband providers from charging companies such as Google Inc. new fees for priority network access. Both measures won unanimous approval from the five-member FCC panel. The commission's two Democrats generally agreed with the goal of applying consistent rules to all broadband services. Still, they warned that the wireless Internet order could erode consumer protections. "The multifaceted nature of wireless services and devices raises a whole host of novel questions that [the] order does not even attempt to answer," Democratic Commissioner Michael J. Copps said. Phone privacy rules would not cover all features of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Copps said. The device, which the company plans to release in June, combines an iPod music player with a mobile-phone handset and will use AT&T's wireless network. The iPhone also will let users access the Internet for free in areas where unlicensed wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, signals are available.
From Bloomberg News
March 23, 2007
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday eased rules on wireless Internet services sold by telecommunications companies including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. The wireless broadband order frees Internet access on hand-held devices from "commercial mobile radio service" rules that apply to wireless telephone services. Thursday's ruling subjects all wireless Internet services to the same rules as land line broadband access offered by telephone companies and cable providers such as Comcast Corp. The measure will encourage broadband investment by letting wireless Internet carriers compete on a level playing field with other high-speed providers, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said. The commission also invited public comment on whether to write net neutrality rules that would bar all broadband providers from charging companies such as Google Inc. new fees for priority network access. Both measures won unanimous approval from the five-member FCC panel. The commission's two Democrats generally agreed with the goal of applying consistent rules to all broadband services. Still, they warned that the wireless Internet order could erode consumer protections. "The multifaceted nature of wireless services and devices raises a whole host of novel questions that [the] order does not even attempt to answer," Democratic Commissioner Michael J. Copps said. Phone privacy rules would not cover all features of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Copps said. The device, which the company plans to release in June, combines an iPod music player with a mobile-phone handset and will use AT&T's wireless network. The iPhone also will let users access the Internet for free in areas where unlicensed wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, signals are available.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Microsoft Makes VoIP Phone Push
Microsoft Makes VoIP Phone Push New Response Point system,
built with partners, targets small and midsize enterprises. Also on tap this week: new VoiP phones from Linksys and Polycom. -->
-->
21, 2007 - By Richard Karpinski
Microsoft this week detailed a new small-business VoIP phone system, code-named Response Point, plus vendor partners to deliver the systems.
Response Point, now in beta testing and shipping later this year, supports both VoIP and conventional POTS service, and includes a voice-activated interface. Three vendors are developing phones based on Response Point specs: D-Link DVX-2000, Quanta Syspine and Uniden Evolo.
Microsoft said it designed the phones to allow small businesses to manage the VoIP systems and network connections themselves. To that end, the phones ship with a PC-based management console that enables tasks such as adding a new user or creating a call distribution list.
In addition to the Response Point hardware phones, Microsoft delivers a software-based VoIP foundation through Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007.
Microsoft said it will distribute the public beta versions of Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007 later this month. The Beta 2 release of Response Point is scheduled for early April.
Polycom also released new VoIP phones this week: the SoundPoint IP 330 and 320 entry-level VoIP phones, and the high-end SoundPoint IP 550, which includes SIP-based features for the enterprise.
Meanwhile, Linksys debuted two new phones: the 6-Line Color Display IP Desktop Phone (SPA962) and the 32-Button Attendant Console (SPA932). The new VoIP phones are targeted at small businesses using a hosted IP telephony service, a SIP-based PBS or large-scale IP Centrex deployment, Cisco said.
The fact that Microsoft is partnering with handset vendors for its small-business solution is fairly interesting. I would have figured that Microsoft would have gone with a softphone solution (a la Office Communications Server). Perhaps Microsoft felt that going with handsets would provide a better user experience. Interestingly, voice-assessment company Psytechnics did a comparative study between a beta of Microsoft's Office Communications Server and "prototype USB handsets," and Cisco's CallManager 5.0 and 7961 IP phones. Psytechnics found that "Overall, the one-way listening speech quality provided by the combination of Microsoft's client and a USB handset was consistently better than that provided by Cisco's IP phones and CallManager, whether using G.711 or G.729." I, for one, was surprised. Sean GinevanNWC Contributing Editor
built with partners, targets small and midsize enterprises. Also on tap this week: new VoiP phones from Linksys and Polycom. -->
-->
21, 2007 - By Richard Karpinski
Microsoft this week detailed a new small-business VoIP phone system, code-named Response Point, plus vendor partners to deliver the systems.
Response Point, now in beta testing and shipping later this year, supports both VoIP and conventional POTS service, and includes a voice-activated interface. Three vendors are developing phones based on Response Point specs: D-Link DVX-2000, Quanta Syspine and Uniden Evolo.
Microsoft said it designed the phones to allow small businesses to manage the VoIP systems and network connections themselves. To that end, the phones ship with a PC-based management console that enables tasks such as adding a new user or creating a call distribution list.
In addition to the Response Point hardware phones, Microsoft delivers a software-based VoIP foundation through Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007.
Microsoft said it will distribute the public beta versions of Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007 later this month. The Beta 2 release of Response Point is scheduled for early April.
Polycom also released new VoIP phones this week: the SoundPoint IP 330 and 320 entry-level VoIP phones, and the high-end SoundPoint IP 550, which includes SIP-based features for the enterprise.
Meanwhile, Linksys debuted two new phones: the 6-Line Color Display IP Desktop Phone (SPA962) and the 32-Button Attendant Console (SPA932). The new VoIP phones are targeted at small businesses using a hosted IP telephony service, a SIP-based PBS or large-scale IP Centrex deployment, Cisco said.
The fact that Microsoft is partnering with handset vendors for its small-business solution is fairly interesting. I would have figured that Microsoft would have gone with a softphone solution (a la Office Communications Server). Perhaps Microsoft felt that going with handsets would provide a better user experience. Interestingly, voice-assessment company Psytechnics did a comparative study between a beta of Microsoft's Office Communications Server and "prototype USB handsets," and Cisco's CallManager 5.0 and 7961 IP phones. Psytechnics found that "Overall, the one-way listening speech quality provided by the combination of Microsoft's client and a USB handset was consistently better than that provided by Cisco's IP phones and CallManager, whether using G.711 or G.729." I, for one, was surprised. Sean GinevanNWC Contributing Editor
Sunday, March 11, 2007
+ 4Q06 VoIP quarterlies published by iLocusiLocus has published the 4Q06 VoIP quarterlies.
+ 4Q06 VoIP quarterlies published by iLocusiLocus has published the 4Q06 VoIP quarterlies. Reports reveal 4Q06 statistics in the area of (1) Carrier VoIP Equipment, (2) Enterprise VoIP Equipment, and (3) VoIP Minutes and Subscribers.In the Carrier VoIP Equipment market, 4Q06 saw shipment of over 9.9 million lines of nextgen Class 5, over 8.3 million lines of nextgen Class 4, and over 13.5 million service provider media gateway ports were shipped worldwide. Out of the Class 5 lines shipped, VoBB application lines showed a decline for the first time since 2004. However the business VoIP lines have significantly ramped up.In the Enterprise VoIP Equipment market, 4Q06 saw shipment of 2.29 million desktop IP phones, about 3.89 million IP PBX end user licenses, and 3.69 million enterprise VoIP gateway ports. An estimated 72,108 single mode VoIP over Wi-Fi handsets were shipped in 4Q06 in the enterprise segment, clearly pointing to the trend forward for dual-mode FMC handsets rather than single mode VoWiFi handsets.On the VoIP Minutes side, 4Q06 saw estimated 314.5 billion minutes of VoIP traffic carried by service providers worldwide. Of these minutes, 118.4 billion was local call volume, 174.3 billion was national long distance (NLD) call volume, and 21.8 billion was the international long distance (ILD) call volume.
+ News RoundupU.S. District Court has found Vonage guilty for infringing on three Verizon patents on VoIP technology. Vonage was ordered to pay $58 million, far less than the $197 million Verizon had requested. According to Verizon, Vonage's service is heavily dependent on the Verizon technology. Verizon said during the trial that it has lost 600,000 customers to Vonage as a result of the pilfered patents. The verdict also awards Verizon a 5.5 percent royalty on Vonage revenues for any future infringement.Akros Silicon, a semiconductor company, has secured $10.1 million in Series B financing led by Levensohn Venture Partners. Akros Silicon has developed mixed signal system-level IC solution that provides integration of Power over Ethernet (PoE) control, power management and interface to the Ethernet world. These ICs are used for bringing power to network attached appliances such as VoIP phones, wireless LAN access points, RFID tag readers, point-of-sale terminals, security cameras, remote access and home networked systems.Sonus Networks has announced IMS standards-based support for billing between different service provider's IP voice networks. The latest release includes support for standards-based feature, as outlined by the 3GPP, that enables operators to track individual calls throughout their own network and when the call is handed off to other network operators. According to Sonus it is one of the first telecommunications vendors to support this IMS-required billing feature.
+ Interview with Shahal Khan, CEO, CentileApplication server vendors have started to scale up their shipments. We saw a successful Netcentrex acquisition and Broadsoft is supposed to be filing an IPO soon. How does that make you feel?First and foremost, it is very good for the market. It shows that application space is now starting to take off and the market has started to move in that direction. Infrastructure is becoming more and more deployed where now carriers, enterprises and online companies that want to offer differentiated services - IMS services or converged services - are now looking at application service providers. So it is very good news for all of us in the market. It helps all of us.If we were to do a brand awareness survey Broadsoft will score higher over Centile even in Europe. Why are European companies like yourself less market savvy?It is a different way of doing business. It has also to do with management culture. The American management culture is very market minded and they are focused globally. Whereas European companies tend to be focused more on the regional market than on global market and are not as aggressive in sales and marketing. But now it is changing. We see now a lot of companies in Europe gearing up in terms of marketing. Centile as well is starting a large marketing campaign and we are opening offices in US, Middle East and Asia this year.Do you have any marketing advice for Asian or European VoIP vendors in order to be seen as leading vendors in the VoIP market?The most important advice that I can give is to focus on your market segment and be able to provide the best customer service support. It is best to start in your own region first, build regional case studies of success, build up your support organization and then utilize that in terms of marketing and sales. People in the market want to see vendors that have deployed large amounts and have done that successfully in every reference. Sales need to be supported locally by reference clients that have done large enough deployments on a large scale.You seem to be active in the FMC market. Can you tell us a little bit about your FMC efforts and whether you are gaining any traction there?We see more interest in GSM companies in deploying FMC service in order to pick more market from fixed line operators. We have just deployed our biggest deployment of FMC in Europe this year with the largest MVNO in Europe called Debitel.What are your plans in the immediate future? Are you seeking a suitable exit strategy right now?Centile has been doing business in the application server space for a long time. However we made ourselves openly available in the market since 2004. So, right now what we see is that we have a large and an open market for ourselves in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Our strategy would be to lead in the EMEA and Asian markets and become the market leader in hosted and premise based PBX, and FMC. We have a new product called click to call product with macromedia which is unique in the market. Our goal at the moment is to continue to invest in our company’s sales and marketing and to increase that. We are not looking at exit right now. The market is still very early. We want to gain more share in the market.European companies do not seem to be keen to outsource their PBX type services. Is that a fact or a myth?The main reason is that most of the large European companies are used to managing the PBX services. They have a lot of issues in giving out their large internal networks to carriers. We think that trend is going to continue. Most European, Asian and Middle East countries that we are in trials with are not very successful with large enterprises. However large enterprises are coming to us via IT vendors. Because of their culture of maintaining their own network and control of their own network it is likely that if there are over 500 employees, those organizations are going to deploy their own hosted PBX services. Anything under 500, then there is a possibility that the carrier may win. I think it comes down to way IT teams and telecom teams in Europe are structured and built. They want their own control over the systems.Why is the market led to believe that IP Centrex or hosted PBX is basically a North American SMB phenomenon?There are a few reasons for this. We have seen a lot of traction in terms of deployments by carriers in that market only. Most of the carriers have deployed this service in North America and there are not very large deployments in Europe, Africa or Middle East. The market in North America is ready for this kind of service right now. The reason being infrastructure, very high level of competition, and low barriers to entry. These features are unique to the North American market but now these are moving very quickly to Europe and other parts of the world where we see more deregulation and competition increasing. North American market has also given the carriers the opportunity to market their services little bit faster.
+ 2006 update on Fixed-Mobile ConvergenceCellular operators gain revenue from FMC in several ways. They can potentially gain new subscribers, substitute fixed minutes, and stimulate a higher call volume. But they also lose a healthy margin on minutes that are transported over WiFi due a large price differential between a Voice-over-WiFi call and a cellular call. The overall impact of FMC on cellular operators depends on proximity to WiFi access, and the calling patterns of cellular subscribers.In the US, cellular operators face a loss of $3.3 billion a year by 2007 due to FMC. UK cellular operators could lose $1.3 billion a year by 2007 due to FMC. These are estimates from our recent report on FMC. Sensitivity analysis done in the report shows that cellular operators in the US need to gain over 70 percent of the FMC market to balance the loss. The other way to balance the impact is to secure migration from fixed to FMC accounts. In the latter case, US cellular operators would need to own at least 78 percent of such FMC subscriptions.FMC for cellular operators is somewhat analogous to the opportunities and threats VoIP presented to fixed line operators in the late nineties. Since the dynamics in the market are different now, it remains to be seen what strategy the cellular operators will adopt in order to turn FMC into a net gain scenario.There have been very few commercial launches of FMC service. Service providers are mostly still in the stage of evaluation of FMC because the market is still unclear as to what convergence means to the consumer. Europe has been more active in FMC than other regions. Europe and North America account for nearly 90 percent activity. However, as mentioned, Europe is much more aggressive in FMC, and the US is relatively behind.Enterprise seems to be a lot more promising because that is where the cost reduction is most probably achievable. The opportunity for incremental revenue in enterprise FMC is probably higher than in consumer market. Consumer market is probably more of a cost reduction initiative than a revenue opportunity, especially for cellular service providers.There are several flavors of FMC available. One of the ways to categorize them is by considering the types of networks that are brought together from the wireless and wireline sides. On the wireless side there is not much difference. We have GSM, CDMA, and perhaps UMTS. On the wireline side we would have the traditional PSTN or the IP. Furthermore, on the IP side if we look at the end point that gives user access to the broadband IP, you would be looking at WiFi, Bluetooth, Wimax and maybe also the Femtocell now. Out of the IP access options, the one the industry seems to have standardized around is the WiFi. Therefore the current FMC market is mostly about WiF-Cellular convergence.If we narrow down the definition of FMC to WiFi-Cellular convergence, then there are about a dozen carriers that have put commercial FMC services on offer in the market. Five of the service providers have gone for the UMA option while the others have gone for the Pre-IMS solution based on SIP. It would be fair to mention that UMA based offerings are making more progress. There are several factors which determine the option implemented by the operators for Fixed-Mobile convergence. These include the existing infrastructure, time factor, long term objectives, CAPEX, services mix, and the target market.In terms of subscriber numbers, Fixed-Mobile Convergence is still in its infancy. Appreciable subscriber signups are not expected earlier than the second half of 2007. As of end 2006, very few commercial launches had taken place and mostly trials were going on. Around 200 to 300 FMC trials are currently going on and they are each in various stages of development. Interviews with service providers reveal that they are anticipating between 1 to 5 percent penetration once the service is fully deployed. By the end of 2007 iLocus forecasts the total number of FMC users at around 6.5 million worldwide. This is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 110 percent to 126.4 million subscribers by the year 2011. The present number of FMC subscribers worldwide is estimated at 436,000.Although it would be too early to rank vendors in this space, however there are clear indications as to who is gaining traction in this early adopter phase. Alcatel leads in both the UMA and Pre-IMS/IMS VCC categories. Within UMA, Kineto Wireless follows Alcatel. In the Pre-IMS/IMS VCC category, Alcatel’s lead is followed by NewStep and Convergin at number two and three respectively. For the overall FMC deployments, Alcatel leads the market with Kineto Wireless and NewStep at number two and number three respectively.For more information on the FMC report please click here.
+ News RoundupU.S. District Court has found Vonage guilty for infringing on three Verizon patents on VoIP technology. Vonage was ordered to pay $58 million, far less than the $197 million Verizon had requested. According to Verizon, Vonage's service is heavily dependent on the Verizon technology. Verizon said during the trial that it has lost 600,000 customers to Vonage as a result of the pilfered patents. The verdict also awards Verizon a 5.5 percent royalty on Vonage revenues for any future infringement.Akros Silicon, a semiconductor company, has secured $10.1 million in Series B financing led by Levensohn Venture Partners. Akros Silicon has developed mixed signal system-level IC solution that provides integration of Power over Ethernet (PoE) control, power management and interface to the Ethernet world. These ICs are used for bringing power to network attached appliances such as VoIP phones, wireless LAN access points, RFID tag readers, point-of-sale terminals, security cameras, remote access and home networked systems.Sonus Networks has announced IMS standards-based support for billing between different service provider's IP voice networks. The latest release includes support for standards-based feature, as outlined by the 3GPP, that enables operators to track individual calls throughout their own network and when the call is handed off to other network operators. According to Sonus it is one of the first telecommunications vendors to support this IMS-required billing feature.
+ Interview with Shahal Khan, CEO, CentileApplication server vendors have started to scale up their shipments. We saw a successful Netcentrex acquisition and Broadsoft is supposed to be filing an IPO soon. How does that make you feel?First and foremost, it is very good for the market. It shows that application space is now starting to take off and the market has started to move in that direction. Infrastructure is becoming more and more deployed where now carriers, enterprises and online companies that want to offer differentiated services - IMS services or converged services - are now looking at application service providers. So it is very good news for all of us in the market. It helps all of us.If we were to do a brand awareness survey Broadsoft will score higher over Centile even in Europe. Why are European companies like yourself less market savvy?It is a different way of doing business. It has also to do with management culture. The American management culture is very market minded and they are focused globally. Whereas European companies tend to be focused more on the regional market than on global market and are not as aggressive in sales and marketing. But now it is changing. We see now a lot of companies in Europe gearing up in terms of marketing. Centile as well is starting a large marketing campaign and we are opening offices in US, Middle East and Asia this year.Do you have any marketing advice for Asian or European VoIP vendors in order to be seen as leading vendors in the VoIP market?The most important advice that I can give is to focus on your market segment and be able to provide the best customer service support. It is best to start in your own region first, build regional case studies of success, build up your support organization and then utilize that in terms of marketing and sales. People in the market want to see vendors that have deployed large amounts and have done that successfully in every reference. Sales need to be supported locally by reference clients that have done large enough deployments on a large scale.You seem to be active in the FMC market. Can you tell us a little bit about your FMC efforts and whether you are gaining any traction there?We see more interest in GSM companies in deploying FMC service in order to pick more market from fixed line operators. We have just deployed our biggest deployment of FMC in Europe this year with the largest MVNO in Europe called Debitel.What are your plans in the immediate future? Are you seeking a suitable exit strategy right now?Centile has been doing business in the application server space for a long time. However we made ourselves openly available in the market since 2004. So, right now what we see is that we have a large and an open market for ourselves in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Our strategy would be to lead in the EMEA and Asian markets and become the market leader in hosted and premise based PBX, and FMC. We have a new product called click to call product with macromedia which is unique in the market. Our goal at the moment is to continue to invest in our company’s sales and marketing and to increase that. We are not looking at exit right now. The market is still very early. We want to gain more share in the market.European companies do not seem to be keen to outsource their PBX type services. Is that a fact or a myth?The main reason is that most of the large European companies are used to managing the PBX services. They have a lot of issues in giving out their large internal networks to carriers. We think that trend is going to continue. Most European, Asian and Middle East countries that we are in trials with are not very successful with large enterprises. However large enterprises are coming to us via IT vendors. Because of their culture of maintaining their own network and control of their own network it is likely that if there are over 500 employees, those organizations are going to deploy their own hosted PBX services. Anything under 500, then there is a possibility that the carrier may win. I think it comes down to way IT teams and telecom teams in Europe are structured and built. They want their own control over the systems.Why is the market led to believe that IP Centrex or hosted PBX is basically a North American SMB phenomenon?There are a few reasons for this. We have seen a lot of traction in terms of deployments by carriers in that market only. Most of the carriers have deployed this service in North America and there are not very large deployments in Europe, Africa or Middle East. The market in North America is ready for this kind of service right now. The reason being infrastructure, very high level of competition, and low barriers to entry. These features are unique to the North American market but now these are moving very quickly to Europe and other parts of the world where we see more deregulation and competition increasing. North American market has also given the carriers the opportunity to market their services little bit faster.
+ 2006 update on Fixed-Mobile ConvergenceCellular operators gain revenue from FMC in several ways. They can potentially gain new subscribers, substitute fixed minutes, and stimulate a higher call volume. But they also lose a healthy margin on minutes that are transported over WiFi due a large price differential between a Voice-over-WiFi call and a cellular call. The overall impact of FMC on cellular operators depends on proximity to WiFi access, and the calling patterns of cellular subscribers.In the US, cellular operators face a loss of $3.3 billion a year by 2007 due to FMC. UK cellular operators could lose $1.3 billion a year by 2007 due to FMC. These are estimates from our recent report on FMC. Sensitivity analysis done in the report shows that cellular operators in the US need to gain over 70 percent of the FMC market to balance the loss. The other way to balance the impact is to secure migration from fixed to FMC accounts. In the latter case, US cellular operators would need to own at least 78 percent of such FMC subscriptions.FMC for cellular operators is somewhat analogous to the opportunities and threats VoIP presented to fixed line operators in the late nineties. Since the dynamics in the market are different now, it remains to be seen what strategy the cellular operators will adopt in order to turn FMC into a net gain scenario.There have been very few commercial launches of FMC service. Service providers are mostly still in the stage of evaluation of FMC because the market is still unclear as to what convergence means to the consumer. Europe has been more active in FMC than other regions. Europe and North America account for nearly 90 percent activity. However, as mentioned, Europe is much more aggressive in FMC, and the US is relatively behind.Enterprise seems to be a lot more promising because that is where the cost reduction is most probably achievable. The opportunity for incremental revenue in enterprise FMC is probably higher than in consumer market. Consumer market is probably more of a cost reduction initiative than a revenue opportunity, especially for cellular service providers.There are several flavors of FMC available. One of the ways to categorize them is by considering the types of networks that are brought together from the wireless and wireline sides. On the wireless side there is not much difference. We have GSM, CDMA, and perhaps UMTS. On the wireline side we would have the traditional PSTN or the IP. Furthermore, on the IP side if we look at the end point that gives user access to the broadband IP, you would be looking at WiFi, Bluetooth, Wimax and maybe also the Femtocell now. Out of the IP access options, the one the industry seems to have standardized around is the WiFi. Therefore the current FMC market is mostly about WiF-Cellular convergence.If we narrow down the definition of FMC to WiFi-Cellular convergence, then there are about a dozen carriers that have put commercial FMC services on offer in the market. Five of the service providers have gone for the UMA option while the others have gone for the Pre-IMS solution based on SIP. It would be fair to mention that UMA based offerings are making more progress. There are several factors which determine the option implemented by the operators for Fixed-Mobile convergence. These include the existing infrastructure, time factor, long term objectives, CAPEX, services mix, and the target market.In terms of subscriber numbers, Fixed-Mobile Convergence is still in its infancy. Appreciable subscriber signups are not expected earlier than the second half of 2007. As of end 2006, very few commercial launches had taken place and mostly trials were going on. Around 200 to 300 FMC trials are currently going on and they are each in various stages of development. Interviews with service providers reveal that they are anticipating between 1 to 5 percent penetration once the service is fully deployed. By the end of 2007 iLocus forecasts the total number of FMC users at around 6.5 million worldwide. This is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 110 percent to 126.4 million subscribers by the year 2011. The present number of FMC subscribers worldwide is estimated at 436,000.Although it would be too early to rank vendors in this space, however there are clear indications as to who is gaining traction in this early adopter phase. Alcatel leads in both the UMA and Pre-IMS/IMS VCC categories. Within UMA, Kineto Wireless follows Alcatel. In the Pre-IMS/IMS VCC category, Alcatel’s lead is followed by NewStep and Convergin at number two and three respectively. For the overall FMC deployments, Alcatel leads the market with Kineto Wireless and NewStep at number two and number three respectively.For more information on the FMC report please click here.
Report: Rising broadband subs fueling CPE market
Report: Rising broadband subs fueling CPE market
By Traci Patterson, CEDMarch 8, 2007
The increasing number of worldwide broadband subscribers is fueling the broadband CPE market, which grew 15 percent to $5.6 billion last year, according to Infonetics Research's latest Broadband CPE and Subscribers Report.
Surging residential gateway sales, which jumped 39 percent between Q1 and Q4 2006 to $2.9 billion, contributed to the rise in CPE manufacturer revenue. The most popular are multiservice gateways - ADSL IAD sales have nearly doubled for the last four years, and EMTA sales, which quadrupled in 2005, almost doubled in 2006.
Infonetics expects ADSL IADs and broadband gateways will keep annual revenue growth in the overall market to the low single digits through 2010, mostly because it expects competition will drive down the price per unit.
Worldwide revenue for voice CPE - including DSL IADs, EMTAs, VTAs, digital home gateways and broadband routers with integrated VTA capability - jumped 115 percent in 2006 and now accounts for 30 percent of the CPE market, Infonetics said.
"Right now, service providers are competing with each other for voice dollars, which is driving their purchase of EMTAs and IADs," said Infonetics analyst Jeff Heynen, in a statement. "Carriers are shifting their focus to video, though, so phase two of the triple play battle will spur big increases in gateway sales - especially VDSL broadband gateways, revenue for which is expected to quadruple in 2007, and digital home gateways, revenue for which will grow six-fold between now and 2010."
The worldwide broadband CPE revenue leader in 2006 was Linksys, followed by Thomson and Motorola. North America holds 39 percent of the worldwide market; it's followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with 35 percent, and Asia Pacific, with 20 percent.
Companies tracked for the report include 2Wire, ARRIS, AVM, Buffalo, D-Link, Foxconn, Huawei, Linksys, Motorola, NETGEAR, Scientific Atlanta, Siemens, Sumitomo, Thomson, Westell, ZTE, ZyXEL and others.
By Traci Patterson, CEDMarch 8, 2007
The increasing number of worldwide broadband subscribers is fueling the broadband CPE market, which grew 15 percent to $5.6 billion last year, according to Infonetics Research's latest Broadband CPE and Subscribers Report.
Surging residential gateway sales, which jumped 39 percent between Q1 and Q4 2006 to $2.9 billion, contributed to the rise in CPE manufacturer revenue. The most popular are multiservice gateways - ADSL IAD sales have nearly doubled for the last four years, and EMTA sales, which quadrupled in 2005, almost doubled in 2006.
Infonetics expects ADSL IADs and broadband gateways will keep annual revenue growth in the overall market to the low single digits through 2010, mostly because it expects competition will drive down the price per unit.
Worldwide revenue for voice CPE - including DSL IADs, EMTAs, VTAs, digital home gateways and broadband routers with integrated VTA capability - jumped 115 percent in 2006 and now accounts for 30 percent of the CPE market, Infonetics said.
"Right now, service providers are competing with each other for voice dollars, which is driving their purchase of EMTAs and IADs," said Infonetics analyst Jeff Heynen, in a statement. "Carriers are shifting their focus to video, though, so phase two of the triple play battle will spur big increases in gateway sales - especially VDSL broadband gateways, revenue for which is expected to quadruple in 2007, and digital home gateways, revenue for which will grow six-fold between now and 2010."
The worldwide broadband CPE revenue leader in 2006 was Linksys, followed by Thomson and Motorola. North America holds 39 percent of the worldwide market; it's followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with 35 percent, and Asia Pacific, with 20 percent.
Companies tracked for the report include 2Wire, ARRIS, AVM, Buffalo, D-Link, Foxconn, Huawei, Linksys, Motorola, NETGEAR, Scientific Atlanta, Siemens, Sumitomo, Thomson, Westell, ZTE, ZyXEL and others.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)