In a new world defined by NGNs it is imperative for resellers to understand their provider's strategy and what it means for their customers.

One major benefit of NGNs is that the same network can be used to carry voice, data and Internet traffic. This means that a service provider's costs are reduced, leading to more competitive prices. "This cost reduction is why BT is investing so much money into its 21CN, the project to replace its legacy single purpose networks with a single converged IP/MPLS network. This cost reduction is also why voice rates have become ever more competitive," said Adrian Sunderland, CTO, Griffin Internet.

The big thing that NGNs have enabled is lower cost, more flexible private networks. Known as MPLS VPNs or IP VPNs, demand for these services has never been greater. "Some resellers are setting up an MPLS VPN and then using this for delivering quality assured VoIP services to all their customers," added Sunderland. "Other resellers are reselling MPLS networks to their customers and then perhaps taking some hosting space and delivering applications to these customers in a secure and quality assured way."

However, some customers might not be ready for MPLS just yet. For those that aren't, Sunderland urges resellers to sell Ethernet-based Internet access or point-to-point leased lines, the cost of these have reduced dramatically thanks to the NGN rollouts. "Also, the humble broadband line has come a long way thanks to the NGN networks," added Sunderland. "It is now possible to buy broadband services with assured bandwidth rates, Quality of Service and higher upstream rates."

One of the most important points that a reseller should consider when deciding on a supplier is sales support, provisioning and technical support. In most cases the reseller won't have experience of QoS, MPLS and National Ethernet. "They will need help building their proposition, they will need help selling and they will want to ensure that they are able to deliver excellent customer support for their customers," added Sunderland. "No reseller wants to end up being ‘piggy in the middle' when the customer's service is down, the carrier is being slow, and they can't do anything without the carrier."

Sunderland says NGN services are the ‘glue' that holds a reseller's proposition together. The connectivity isn't the whole story though. The most successful resellers will combine NGN connectivity with hosted IT applications. "This year is seeing hosted telephony and SIP trunking growth like never before, so VoIP should be part of the proposition also," commented Sunderland.

There are many arguments why NGNs are more efficient platforms than their legacy predecessors. Firstly, IP is a fundamentally more efficient communications protocol than many legacy protocols, especially service-specific protocols (such as voice) converging different services onto a single platform (instead of on separate bespoke networks), and it gives economies of scale. "True NGNs are ‘pure play' and operators do not have to invest time and cost harmonising with legacy services and networks," noted Andy Lockwood, Transformation Director, Opal. "In addition, the cost of equipment is reducing all the time, so new NGNs benefit from faster cheaper equipment than their legacy counterparts."

Fundamentally, resellers need to focus on a solution-sell, creating business value by reducing IT and operating costs or by creating increased potential to grow the business. "Resellers need to begin with the basics, firstly deploying an all-IP Wide Area Network (WAN) on a NGN which saves IT costs and becomes the platform for the development," added Lockwood. "Then they need to ensure that the services which run over the WAN are capable of being converged, such as voice and data over fixed and mobile networks. This gives the opportunity to improve operating efficiency and reduce Opex."

With the deployment of ‘presence-aware' technologies such as Web 2.0, applications can offer a much richer experience providing more context-specific information across the burgeoning range of applications we now all use to communicate. "When it is done properly this provides the opportunity to offer richer communications both externally and internally, which can affect the performance of the entire business," commented Lockwood. "Focusing on this full stack of offers is key to making customers sticky and central to unlocking the full potential of the opportunity with customers."

A key point, noted Lockwood, is that resellers of NGNs should not be looking to sell products, they should be focusing on the whole business issues faced by their customers and offering communications solutions underpinned by NGNs and their services and applications.

According to Darren Farnden, Head of Marketing at Entanet, NGN services are ‘essential' for resellers deciding on what their business will look like in 12 months time. "The market is evolving rapidly, customer usage habits are changing fast, therefore their demands for capacity and speed are increasing," he said. "As residential users embrace IPTV, VoIP, online gaming and music streaming, and as businesses adopt new cost effective systems such as SaaS and support remote workers and regional offices, reliable and cost-effective connectivity becomes even more critical. The only way resellers can accommodate these increasing demands is by embracing next generation services."

Their chosen NGN strategy, or rather that of their wholesale provider, will dramatically shape their business over the next 12 months, he believes. "It will dictate which NGN services they are able to provide, in what packages options and where they will be available," added Farnden. "Their decision of supplier will therefore dictate which customers they will attract and retain, and in turn affect their market competitiveness. It is critically important that resellers partner with a provider that has a NGN strategy that supports their business and satisfies the needs of their customers."