Challenges faced by carriers from the perspective of Unified Communication

Turning on the roster of Unified Communication vendors, Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel, IBM and other world-renowned Telecom IT vendors are all listed. I don't know when to start. These vendors will get together and work toward a common goal: Unified Communication. As the name implies, Unified Communication integrates existing communication methods. Users can communicate with each other at any time according to their preferences, and can use any device to communicate with each other through any media, this facilitates the integration of communications and business processes, simplifies the operation, and increases productivity and profits.

On the other hand, operators began to find that the existing network is no longer able to adapt to business development. Increasingly diversified business types make management and operation more and more difficult. How to use these network resources more effectively and manage and develop more businesses becomes an important topic of concern to operators. As a result, the concept of next-generation networks integrated by NGN and IMS came into being.

At first glance, the two are unrelated. Unified Communication is based on applications, while next-generation networks are based on the integration of telecom networks from the operator's perspective. But there is a common gene in both bodies: IP.

Accelerating network convergence to enhance refined management of IP applications

Unified Communication is an application platform based on IP networks. It integrates most of the existing communication methods that can be imagined: Voice, instant messaging, multimedia, and even mobile and satellite communications, most of them are bound with IP services. In addition, these communication methods have a significant substitution effect on the operator's business. Mobile phones, text messages, and emails are no longer indispensable applications for customers. But at present, domestic operators obviously lack countermeasures in this regard. Most of the existing network management methods of operators adopt monthly subscription, which lacks effective management measures for such IP-based applications. In this way, the role of operators will gradually fade into a single highway builder, and the vision of comprehensive information service providers will become an empty talk.

The only way out is to accelerate the continuous integration of networks and vigorously develop the next generation network. Abstract existing circuit switching networks and data networks to form a unified and flexible management layer to facilitate the development of various businesses, at the same time, various businesses can be incorporated into a transparent and manageable unified platform. This is an important application of IMS in billing and other fields. It is also an important direction and role for carriers to develop the next generation network.

Seek Development through cooperation

Of course, the challenges from the IP network are not only at the network management layer.

According to statistics, Cisco currently has more than 500 employees in its main customer group. Cisco has more than 30 thousand corporate voice customers worldwide, and more than 80 of them have deployed over five thousand IP phones. Cisco changes nearly 12 thousand traditional phone numbers every day. Cisco has sold 8 million IP phones. After Cisco integrates application services through unified communication, it can completely remove existing customers from the operator's network to form its own internal enterprise communication network. What is this not a carrier?

The free WI-FI access launched by GOOGLE and American online in many cities in the United States has cast a shadow over the development prospects of operators.

These emerging operators in the future will fundamentally change the industrial structure of the telecom industry. Which of the following will the operators choose for war and peace?

Of course, cooperation is easy to accept. After all, Chinese operators have unique advantages, a large customer base, operating experience, and rich upstream and downstream industrial chain resources, which are all lacking by those manufacturers. More importantly, the next generation network provides a platform for both parties to integrate with each other and cooperate in SP and other aspects.

All in all, Unified Communication Brings Challenges to operators, but an open and unified platform also brings unlimited business opportunities to both parties.

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