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Broadband Access
C5: BT, Telecom Italia Disagree On NGN Marketing
‘How Much Should Customers Know?’ Ask Operators
by Iain Morris
Operators at the C5 World Forum in Milan today disagreed over the marketing of their NGN networks to customers.
BT and Swisscom do not plan to ‘sell’ the NGN concept to their end customers, delegates learned, while Telecom Italia and Wind see more opportunity from promoting the technology.
“I’d prefer customers didn’t know about it,” says Matt Beal, the program director of 21CN – the name BT has given to its US$18.7 Billion, all-IP network, scheduled for completion by 2011 (see Goodbye PSTN, Hello 21CN).
BT is hoping customers will feel the benefits of 21CN without realizing what is responsible. Its biggest customer-relations problem relates to long disconnections when people move house, particularly for broadband users, and Beal reckons that 21CN will go a long way towards solving this.
Swisscom is choosing not to promote its NGN project simply because it does not believe its customers will be the main beneficiaries.
“It’s more about cost reduction and efficiency,” says Philippe Vuilleumier, head of platform management, network development and operations for the Swiss incumbent. “How will it help me drive down cost per bit and what is the impact on my organization? These are the questions that keep me awake at night.” Telecom Italia, on the other hand, seems eager to keep customers informed about its NGN deployment.
“Basically, the user is undergoing an assault of different services and there is a lot of confusion,” says Giovanni Colombo, the head of long-term research for Telecom Italia. “They needed to be educated about NGNs.”
And Italian altnet Wind says its NGN message is simplification for both its own business processes and its customers.
“The operator can simplify management of the network and reduce costs,” says Ermanno Berruto, network architecture and traffic director for Wind. “At the same time, customers can be attracted by the simplicity of anytime, anywhere services.”
On a separate issue, Berruto says operators still need more support from vendors on integration of equipment.
“They’re still trying to maximize the selling of boxes, and we need them to focus more on integration than on their own equipment,” he says. “BT’s experience sounds like a good one, with many vendors interoperating [see BT Pioneers NGN "Open Innovation"].
More Information:
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C5: Telefonica And France Telecom Cast Doubts On IMS
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