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Social communication enabled in the core
| Hans vd Groenendaal | December 10, 2011 | No comments |
With increasing penetration of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media, today’s network operators could turn into data pipe providers
Speaking at SATNAC 2011, Genband’s V-P Business Development for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Brian Day, said that while social networking technology allows efficient interaction with customers, the more widespread the deployment of such technology is in the core of the network, the more efficient the deployment of services will be. This will enable branded value-added services to be supplied by operators and increase their revenue–generating potential from third party apps providers.
Day joins a number of industry leaders that are firmly of the opinion that as voice revenue diminishes and data traffic expands exponentially, telcos need to embed new services into their core in order to generate a more equitable return on their investment.
One of the recent innovations is the Genband A2 application server which works across TDM, IP and IMS networks simultaneously for hybrid network deployments. Subscribers can be part of the same closed user group and be a mix of any or all of these simultaneously, thereby relieving the need to strand legacy infrastructure.
The integrated wireless mobility manager provides for mobile integration with any mobile phone for services such as fixed mobile convergence, voice over LTE, mobile office and mobile unified communications.
Joe McGarvey of Current Analysts said in a recent telco industry report that the A2 converged application server is a threat to competitors in the hosted multimedia application server sector of the market. “The Genband A2 pushes the openness envelope, as the platform employs a “hardware freedom” model that enables operators to port the software to dozens of RedHat/Linux-certified servers, as well as Genband’s own GENiUS ATCA platform.
The A2 is capable of multiple configurations, including deployment as a standalone SIP application server, in conjunction with a softswitch, and as an IMS-based application server. The A2 enjoys a rich legacy of multimedia support, as the application server was originally introduced to provide enterprise environments with an effective mix of communications and collaboration capabilities that predated by several years the delivery of so-called unified communications platforms.
Despite numerous name changes while the product was part of Nortel’s carrier VoIP portfolio and a change of ownership with Genband’s 2010 purchase of Nortel’s CVAS business unit, the A2 has remained popular with carriers for both enterprise- and consumer-related deployments. More than 13-million A2 subscriber licences have been issued and the platform is deployed in at least one environment (LG Telecom in Korea) that exceeds one million users.
The integrated wireless mobility manager provides for mobile integration with any mobile phone for services such as fixed mobile convergence, voice over LTE, mobile office and mobile unified communications.
The application of the A2 application server in the network will give customers from a single user interface access to voice and video calling, instant messaging and presence, conferencing and collaboration, email, voicemail and text messaging.
Recently at the launch of Genband in South Africa, the facilities available from the A2 application platform were demonstrated. It a truly converged system – with a single number for all communication services which can ring at several places simultaneously, such as the office, your cell or the home phone and wherever it is picked up, the call is connected. It offers endless opportunities to route a call from the cellphone to the home phone or any other smart device.
Large enterprises with distributed global offices and workforce can leverage the A2 as their corporate phone system, ensuring a consistent communications experience for every employee regardless of location. It also provides the means to interconnect existing on-premise phone systems by offering a converged voice and data service from the same provider.
A2 integrates multiple offices whether IP, TDM or hybrid, into a single business group, providing unified communications, coordinated dialing, forwarding and transferring of calls between locations. Business groups may contain any combination of end users connected through a SIP PBX trunk or hosted directly by the A2 without a PBX or IP PBX.
The Mobile Office application allows end-users to use a mobile handset as if it were wired directly to their business office with the same features, dial plan, calling line ID and long distance plan as their main office phone. The A2 application programming interfaces allow third-party developers and operators to not only customise applications but also create new and differentiating applications for their market and needs.
The industry has for many years been talking about unified communication, but has not yet fully delivered on the promise of that one number for all services. Number? Well, it is more likely to be an internet address that will link any devices in any locations. Maybe at last our dreams will turn into reality!
Source: EngineerIT
