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Frens Jan Rumph
Profile: I am a researcher, technical consultant and software engineer based in Holland. I have specialized in Charging, Accounting and Billing architectures. From both a technical point of view (IETF, 3GPP, etc) and a business point of view (TM Forum, GBA).
Main interests: Telecom, Charging, Accounting, Billing, Service Orientation, Software Architectures, Software Engineering
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Finish 3G bit pipes
Interesting post from the CTO of NMS Communications on a study from the University of Helsinki, Finland on the usage of 3G in Finland, his analysis: ‘3G’s biggest success is as a dumb pipe‘ and we don’t need IMS, GSM over SIGTRAN over IP with an IP/MPLS core network will suffice. Dean Bubley also posted on this on his Disruptive Wireless blog. Dean raises the question: ‘is it really worth bothering about all that complex QoS, prioritisation, differential pricing, IMS etc for the remaining 5%?‘ These discussions are all based on a presentation of Antero Kivi (pdf).
Yes, it might be a bit shocking, perhaps not suprising, it probably was not the vision of 3G initiators years and years ago. But, I disagree that we just need ‘plain old’ IP access for internet with some GSM and SMS stuff on top. Sure, the days of walled gardens and the traditional one-sided telco business models are over. I won’t argue against that, and this is probably a good indication that it is.
But we will need QoS and prioritisation since some services simply have different requirements on the communications network then others and that has a tremendous effect on the QoE (Quality of Experience), which in turn is (IMHO) an important aspect of some of todays and a lot of tomorrows services. We will also need differential pricing. Flat fee will not last for ever, nor will services with a business model purely based on advertising. Perhaps we will see third-party based sponsorships in the near future, which will require differential pricing. And the IMS is an enabler for this. Especially if you combine that with the vision of research projects such as Ambient Networks and the Advanced Multimedia System. The future will tell if telco’s will become/stay bit pipes, I’d say that there are loads of opportunities to being more then that!
Frens Jan Rumph