Pipeline Publishing, Volume 3, Issue 1
This Month's Issue: 
Balancing Billing 
download article in pdf format
last page next page
Telecom and the emerging
Asia-Pacific Marketplace
back to cover

article page | 1 | 2 | 3 |

Although foreign companies wanting to set up shop in India must still have some degree of local ownership, more international companies are moving to India every day.  Those that are not moving there are at least seeking out Indian customers. Indo-US partnerships abound. Just last month, Aircell Cellular, an Indian company, announced a partnership with California-based Roamware, a provider of voice and data roaming solutions. The deal will allow subscribers to continue using abbreviated codes to local access services such as voicemail and customer care, while roaming.

Other international OSS companies are taking advantage of the Indian environment of superior technological skills in development. OSS vendor Axiom Systems, which offers service fulfillment software for communications service providers, is working with Wipro, one of the largest Indian engineering firms, to componentize OSS services to simplify the fulfillment process.

Other Asian countries are also showing tremendous growth. Indonesia has 38 million


 

VoIP in Asia


Small and mid-sized businesses are taking center stage throughout Asia, and they are quickly getting up to speed with networking and advanced telephony. In particular, they are rapidly embracing VoIP not just as a way to cut costs, but as a way of participating in the global marketplace. According to AMI-Partners, small and medium-sized businesses in Singapore, Taiwan and Korea are continuing to move toward participation in global supply chains, and are seeking new ways to communicate with their business partners around the world. In these markets alone, AMI-Partners reports that SMBs spent $11.5 million on VoIP in 2003.  In India, China and Russia, SMBs spent $19.4 million on VoIP in 2003, and will spend more than $200 million in 2008. More recently, In-Stat noted that VoIP services will grow by a billion dollars a year throughout Asia, reaching $10 billion by 2009. In terms of services such as IP Centrex in the Asia-Pacific region, IDC predicts a 95 percent annual growth rate, with IP Centrex services along growing to $157 million by

 

 

handset subscribers and 16 percent mobile penetration, and according to the country's statistics, Indonesia must import $500 to $600 million in telecom equipment annually. Since reforms in Vietnam, telecom is expanding at 10 percent annually there as consumer confidence continues to grow and foreign investment is welcomed.

According to a survey commissioned by Genesys (an Alcatel company), the Asia-Pacific region leads the world in IP telephony adoption, with IP deployed at 25 percent of the 500 contact centers polled. Sixty percent of the centers polled expect to deploy IP within a year to at least one contact center; and 82 percent within two years. More customer service organizations will be investing in IP telephony for their call centers, and although cost savings are a major factor behind IP telephony, telcos are also demanding more sophisticated applications for managing customer interactions. And a positive note for the OSS industry also comes out of this survey: three fourths of respondents expect, within three years, to deploy or support customer interaction applications or technologies that are currently not planned for.

 

2009. This rapid adoption of VoIP throughout the Asian market will be a key driver for related OSS companies that serve telcos in this market.

The mobile operators do have the advantage of having systems in place for billing, customer service and so on, and that makes them formidable competitors to anyone daring to enter their turf with WiMAX. But if WiMAX does deliver, it will certainly upset the mobile market – it will be the biggest disruption this industry has seen in its entire history.

So, let the games begin.

IP Multimedia systems (IMS)
A new mobile platform has been developed that makes seamless communications possible between fixed and mobile networks. Called IPMultimedia System (IMS), it sits between the access layer and the services layer and allows for more efficient IP services, as well as the opportunity to develop more multimedia services.

article page | 1 | 2 | 3 |

last page back to top of page next page
 

 

© 2006, All information contained herein is the sole property of Pipeline Publishing, LLC. Pipeline Publishing LLC reserves all rights and privileges regarding
the use of this information. Any unauthorized use, such as copying, modifying, or reprinting, will be prosecuted under the fullest extent under the governing law.