Peter Belčák
"Tomorrow is here". Thus begins an article written by Nick Lippis from Strategic Networks. The article continues: "The traditional circuit-switched voice networks - long the domain of a few telcos - have given way to a packet-switched IP infrastructure. And IP is enabling unrivalled gains in capacity, speed, and price/performance. Sceptical? Consider this: The Internet already boasts more switching capacity than the public phone network. Factors like competition, deregulation, and low-cost capital (cheap money) have rewritten the rules for service providers, opening the door to profitable new value-added services, innovative businesses and streamlined operational models."
There is no doubt we are living in a whole new world - a world where all business, industrial and political relations have become more and more globalised. The impacts on the telecommunications industry and service providers are growing daily.
All these changes are bringing new opportunities for telecom operators and service providers to offer solutions that anticipate customer needs, wherever and however they operate in the world. Never has this been more critical than in today's rapidly transforming business environment, where the flexibility to use new technologies and new business tools is the key to success in the global marketplace.
Multinational corporations are driving the speed of change in the telecommunications industry. As businesses become increasingly global and interconnected, they are demanding new solutions that will allow them to integrate not only their subsidiaries and suppliers, but also the customers and partners of those subsidiaries. The goal they all share is to be able to participate in the same expanding technical, geographical and product environment. It is this global community of leaders, multinational companies and small to medium-sized enterprises linked by the Internet, intranets and extranets, that is pushing for a new, solutions-oriented approach to the provision of telecoms services.
But new opportunities also bring new challenges for new-world service providers. These providers are facing a whole new set of customer expectations, ones that go far beyond the familiar landmarks of voice service, 56-kbit/s data and frame relay. Even their current claim to fame - inexpensive, high-speed connectivity - will not be enough for enterprise customers, who want more than just transport services from their provider partners. They are looking for intranets, VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), VoIP (Voice Over IP), managed network services and advanced Web hosting - all priced and packaged to suit their needs.
Over the next few years, while the fasternet will dominate, the role of intranets will still not disappear or slow down. Businesses today draw on the power of intranet, and are starting to use intranet-based applications for everything from administrative tasks to collaborative research projects. Furthermore, portions of intranets will become integrated with companies' public Internet sites and extranets - private networks interconnecting suppliers and other business partners - to create seamless networks. In the near future, intranet applications like VoIP will reduce hardware and bandwidth costs. The real value will be in productivity gains that come from linking desktop applications to messaging.
Peter Belčák is Accounts Manager at Global One Communications s.r.o. Comments can sent to him at: peter.belcak@globalone.net
Author: Peter Belčák
