IP is the future for B2B and with the first mass market end-to-end NGN now in place, Opal Telecom is reaffirming its commitment to channel partner growth, states Neil McArthur, Managing Director of The Carphone Warehouse Networks (CPWN).
CPWN is the Carphone Warehouse division which provides telecoms services to Opal, TalkTalk and AOL Broadband customers. McArthur said the evolution of the NGN had been challenging at times, but the full unbundling of over 70 per cent of UK exchanges in just three years, as well as the recent migration of our millionth customer, proves the success of the business services and models it has enabled. The Carphone Warehouse decided to invest in its own NGN strategy in 2005, mainly to support its TalkTalk free broadband offer - but this was only commercially viable with a converged voice and data network that combined a programme of fully unbundling local exchanges.
"Delivering the NGN was challenging because it was a complete move from TDM to IP which required brand new equipment and the build of a new network from ground-up, not just the exchange of network components," said McArthur. "But because we committed to NGN, it's allowed us to deliver free broadband profitably."
CPWN is the third largest network operator in the UK, with over two billion TDM minutes passing each month over its network. "We have always been proud of our engineering excellence," said McArthur. "We were the first to host a network-based bulk call recording product, the first to allow customers to self manage non-geographic services via the web, and are currently the only provider in the market to offer a network-based telephone preference screening service (TPS). Now we are leading the race in the delivery of an end-to-end NGN that is fully operational and I am particularly proud of the quality of replication of Class 5 local exchange services, historically provided by the local exchange in the TDM network. We will all have to move to NGNs. It's not a matter of if, but when. BT's 21CN will ramp-up and Cable and Wireless will not be far behind."
"Because we committed to NGN, it's allowed us to deliver free broadband"
McArthur agreed that CPWN has effectively stolen a march on BT with the rapid transition of so many customers. But unlike BT they do not have to support a legacy infrastructure. According to CPWN, analyst figures show that CPWN has at least a 50 per cent lead on the nearest competitor in terms of fully unbundled exchanges. "BT's early decision to migrate everything was an error and now it's having to bolt its legacy network and NGN together," confirms McArthur.
"Our group's investment in our NGN and enabling technologies such as SIP, will support our customers and channel partners in moving from traditional services to IP-based services. It's a big change for the industry, but once we get there we can finally get rid of x.25, ATM, Frame Relay and onto IP and Ethernet networks and it will be so much easier to run voice and data over the same infrastructure. We believe the future is access ownership and one unified point of connection. This gives our retail customers - CPW, AOL and Opal - the ability to compete effectively, not only on price but increasingly on service. So where do we go from here? The next step of course is development and delivery of a range of new services that full convergence allows, from unified communications in the business space to band-width hungry applications and content delivery in the consumer world. For channel partners, we're developing interfaces that will allow full access to our service management."
McArthur anticipated that CPWN will pass the two million NGN customer mark within 18 months. A tranche of up to 700,000 subscribers will join this year, with 1.5 million AOL broadband subscribers scheduled to make the transition in the next six months. "The commitment from our people and support from partners and suppliers has been outstanding," he said.