The Programmable Network…Tapping into Golden Potential

The trend in both wireless and wireline systems is to open networks to third-party developers and vendor collaboration. —Ilhan Bagoren Telenity

Telenity enables network programmability to unlock that embedded potential with a powerful set of tools known as Canvas. The Canvas CSP (Converged Services Platform) and a wealth of messaging, location and content related Canvas products open the embedded infrastructure to rapid service creation. The result is a variety of multifaceted, integrated products and services such as voice over IP, voice interactive multicast, ringback tones, video calling, ring-tones, logos, games, tele-voting, advertising, subscriber alerts and many more, that increase revenue and reduce subscriber churn while keeping operating expenses in check.

Industry leaders discuss the programmable network and Telenity's role in tapping into its golden potential.

Ilhan Bagoren Telenity vice president of marketing: The resounding question from carriers is, “How do we create new products while maintaining our fiscal guidelines?” Our strategy is to help network operators decrease their capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenditures (OPEX), and at the same time increase their average revenue per user (ARPU). Market studies and carrier surveys estimate that for every $10 that is added to the ARPU, carriers must try 500 new, value-added services. Many of those services would require purchasing a number of different vertical applications and then integrating each of them into a network.

Canvas CSP offers a very practical solution to these challenges, by combining application services and the service-creation environment so that the network integration is done upfront. All the new applications and services can be launched seamlessly. Not only does this dramatically cut the time to deployment, it also saves on the cost of duplicating infrastructure and frees network operators from the piecemeal approach to adding new applications and services.

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young: In creating early services, operators typically followed a service-by-service architecture approach with scant regard to scalability and production economics. The resulting patchwork architecture – both in the service creation and IT layers – poses a significant constraint on the operator's ability to rapidly design, implement and launch new services. But it is this very attribute – i.e., speed to market – that will be key to gaining competitive advantage in the future mobile market where a growing number of services will be offered with shortening life spans.

The solution to the operators' integration challenge appears to be the new service platform approach, which involves a common middleware and standardized service creation environment.

Ilhan Bagoren : The trend in both wireless and wireline systems is to open networks to third-party developers and vendor collaboration. Telenity and Nortel Networks recently joined forces to launch Canvas LES (Location Enabling Server) and Canvas RTMS (Resource Tracking and Management System) with Nortel Network's Mobile Location Center (MLC). This is a winning effort for all concerned, especially the customer, Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago LTD (TSTT).

Hendrickson Herbert, New Mobile Technologies manager for TSTT: We expect to see a rapid growth in our revenues from location-based services with the deployment of this solution jointly provided by Telenity and Nortel. It will empower us to leverage existing investments in our network infrastructure and make our data services more useful by adding location intelligence.

Ilhan Bagoren : Network operators are integrating instant messaging, text messaging and other data-centric and multimodal applications into their platforms. But they don't want to have to reconstruct their networks and retrain their personnel with every new service.

The Canvas family of products solves that dilemma with services that are easily created and smoothly integrated. One carrier might combine Canvas MultiCast and Canvas Multimedia Billboard to disseminate interactive interviews and multimedia advertising. Another might blend Canvas PFS (People Finder Service) to locate friends with Canvas PayForMe, which allows the mobile callers to reverse charges on a prepaid account. The key thing is that the operator is encouraged to try new things because it only takes two to eight weeks to create, test, simulate, validate and turn up a new service.

Ed Verney, HP director of service interaction product family: The days of just selling technology are gone. Beyond the technology, services are key. They must be simple to use and interactive. This is only possible with flexible, open systems such as Telenity's Canvas platform integrated with the HP OpenCall Media Platform (OCMP). Our joint solution provides carriers with the versatility to offer a wide array of personalized services for their customer base.

Together with Telenity, we have had success with Azercell in Azerbaijan, and in the Ukraine with the Canvas MMSC, SMSC, Voice Mail and SmartAlert applications and services. Now we are jointly deploying unified messaging and fixed-line short message services for Turkish Telecom. This is one of our largest deployments of the HP OpenCall Media Platform and certainly our largest deployment of unified messaging.

Sevket Sezen, Turkcell networks division head: Our customers want to manage their voice and data calls. Their primary concern is that they can send and receive messages, video and e-mail in a secure and seamless fashion at a time of their choosing. At Turkcell, we deploy a range of Canvas products to deliver this customer-oriented service. With Canvas SmartAlert subscribers get a list of the calls they missed when they were unavailable. We create new products using Telenity's Canvas CSP and Canvas LES (Location Enabling Server) that pinpoint geographic sites and destinations while they vigilantly guard the subscribers' privacy. Both our prepaid and postpaid customers have come to expect the original voice-enhanced data services that we create with these powerful, graphically-driven tools.

Laurent Amar, VoiceAge president: When we're talking about next generation messaging we're really talking about content, and how to give users the same wireless experience with multimedia services (MMS) that they take for granted when on their desktop PCs. We're making it practical and affordable for network operators to quickly expand their MMS offerings by optimizing multimedia files for the receiving device. Operators can just as aggressively brand those offerings to protect their revenue growth.

Ed Verney: Telenity and HP have been working together for about three years. Azercell was our first joint win. Telenity successfully deployed their Voice Mail system and SmartAlert service on top of HP OCMP. And we have been able to reduce CAPEX for Azercell. Azercell doesn't have to roll out additional platforms per each new service that they want to turn on. They can run all of the services on the same platform.

Simon Wilkinson, CEO of magic4 (now part of Openwave): The success of MMS is about transforming some 700 million SMS (short message service) users who send 25 billion text messages a month into MMS users. Network operators, content providers and service developers must live in both worlds, and must clearly demonstrate interoperability, scalability and reliability. The interoperability of magic4's MMS Client with Telenity's Canvas MMSC ( Multimedia Messaging Service Center ) provides this assurance to GSM and CDMA wireless network operators.

Ed Verney: Carriers need solid solutions that operate from day one that are highly scalable as they grow their business. Telenity and HP's successful deployment of the integrated Canvas product suite with the HP OpenCall Media Platform is a proven solution that customers can rely on.