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Networks & Infrastructure
IMS Executive Summit: Convergence is the Killer App
Panelists Hard-Pressed to Define What Will Drive the Technology
by Jim Barthold
From a business standpoint, the ability of IMS to drive Fixed-
Mobile Convergence (FMC) among wireless and wireline
operators will be the legendary “killer application,” said
panelists at FierceMarkets’ IMS Executive Summit in
Washington DC.
Convergence is being driven by vendors who are building the
first dual-mode wireless phones; by service providers who are
building networks to deliver services across both ends of the
networks; and by applications providers who are building
applications that run on top of those networks.
Even while agreeing on convergence as the killer app,
panelists were unable to agree on how to exactly define convergence
and how IMS played into that and the applications
that will eventually run on those converged networks. In fact,
they didn’t even really agree on the meaning of convergence
which, according to Masoud Loghmani, CTO of LogicTree,
speaking at the appropriately named “Identifying Killer Apps
Panel,” defined as “a nebulous term.”
Loghmani, like other members of his panel, said that IMS is
a step towards converging networks and applications and that
a parallel step must be to make those networks and
applications run easily while offering something consumers
want.
“People on the street are the ones that are going to pay the
bills and it it’s not easy to use they won’t buy it,” Loghmani
said.
Brian Caskey, vice president of worldwide marketing at
UTStarcom agreed and added that convenience should
accompany ease of use.
“We’re a society that wants instant gratification. There’s no
reason why IMS is not the enabler that drives that,” Caskey
said.
There was a deeper question – bordering, perhaps on a
potential problem – of how this convenience, ease of use and
personalized service delivery system will make money,
especially among service providers who see users pretty
stationary at $200 per month in disposal income for
entertainment – including wireless voice services -- according
to David Croslin, Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard,
speaking at an earlier panel, the “Business Case for IMS.”
“You really can’t prove cap ex, op ex reductions; you really
can’t prove a revenue stream,” he said, challenging vendors
to sell the technology to service providers who are “still
aggressively trying to slash, not spend money.”
Compounding that is the fear that the applications and their
revenues may slip away from the service providers.
“Would it be bad if you built that roadway and others took
advantage of it?” asked Loghmani. “It’s a hard question to
answer. How do we bring in partners but not allow them to
steal the show.”
Part of the answer, he said, is that the “walled garden”
approach to IMS applications will probably not succeed. If it’s
too difficult or too expensive for applications developers to
get their wares on IMS networks “innovation will find a way
around it and you will find companies coming in and taking
advantage of what you have built,” Loghmani said.
The panelists almost universally agreed – with slight
variations – on what IMS is and what it can be.
IMS is “an opportunity with staggering complexity,” said Colin
Dixon, the killer app panel moderator and the leader of the
IP Media practice at The Diffusion Group.
It is also, ideally, a “great enabler of what we think is coming
in the next generations,” said Tony Kern, Deputy Managing
Partner, Technology, Media & Telecommunications and
Americas Managing Partner, Media and Entertainment at
Deloitte & Touche.
IMS may be driven by the convenience of any network, any
device, anyplace convergence, but that won’t happen if it’s too
hard to do.
“The key is to hide the complexity from the end user,” said
Graham Ellis, Program Manager, Convergence Marketing at
Nokia Networks.
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