Operating costs and return of investment for network operators are just some of the key issues that will be addressed at the 5th annual Mobile Networks Evolution Summit. Ong Boon Teong, Network Architecture Strategy and Research Services Senior Engineer for Starhub, speaks to IQPC Telecom IQ on improving the network infrastructure and evolution in Asia Pacific.

Ong Boon Teong is a panelist at the 5th annual mobile networks evolution summit and will be addressing the trends of network evolution in the Asia Pacific and where the technology is heading towards.

IQPC:
Could you please elaborate on some of the challenges that network evolution in the Asia Pacific are facing?

Ong Boon Teong:
Network evolution, as the word evolution implies, incorporates significant network transformation or changes in the underlying architecture/infrastructure and service offerings.

One of the main challenges faced in Asia Pacific, is the transition of network architecture from a circuit-switched based to one that is packet-switched based. Operators would want to keep and continue to utilize existing infrastructure, mainly circuit-switched based, for as much and long as possible, and at the same time, facing with tremendous pressure to cope with the demands and growths in the packet data segment.

There is also a major concern as whether a full packet-switched or an all-IP multi-service network is able to scale and provide the same carrier-grade quality of service (QoS) level of a circuitswitched network for voice and video services.

Besides having to avert the situation of becoming mere dump-pipe providers, operators are increasingly challenged to put in place “intelligence” in their networks to diversify their service portfolios based on varied tiers, bundles and QoS.

IQPC:
How should these problems be addressed and which countries can be used as a model to improving network evolution in the Asia Pacific?

Ong Boon Teong:
One of the main restraints in the network evolution path is the comfort level that each operator has achieved with its existing network architecture. Moving on to overlay and, eventually replace the network with a new all-IP network requires a lot of strategic analyses and studies to ensure seamless migration and continuity of legacy services with the same level of quality, besides to enable delivery of new offerings.

Operators would need to overcome this barrier or even fear, be proactive and get prepared early with the new technology. Getting prepared early will allow longer timeline for an operator to gain experience and to rectify the mistakes before the technology need ramping up in the near future. Japan is always at the forefront in new technology adoption and the leading market in Asia Pacific. South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore are the next countries in the list. While each of these countries has specific market behaviors and trends, there will be general frameworks and experiences which operators in the region can model after and implement.

IQPC:
When it comes to costs and return of investment, how well placed are markets in Asia Pacific when it comes to implementing the infrastructure of network evolution?

Ong Boon Teong:
In Asia Pacific, some huge high-growth telecoms markets like China, India, Indonesia, Iran and Bangladesh, in terms of costs and return of investment, are in a flexible and ready-to-go position to implement new infrastructures as the market saturation rate is still low and most parts of these countries are still unwired.

In such situation where there is no old legacy network in place, getting straight to a new network technology implementation would help operators in saving more costs due to lower OPEX. Most operators in the highly saturated and extensively-wired markets like Hong Kong and Singapore meanwhile, would be more conscious and careful in their CAPEX allocation for new network infrastructure as they continue to innovate and launch creative new services to increase return of investment.

Network evolution in matured markets are also very much driven by government initiatives and subsidies to promote market leadership and enhance the standard of living through ICT, as seen in Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

IQPC:
As Asia Pacific, becomes more affluent, could you please explain how the mobile networks infrastructure has to be advanced enough to meet the impending demand from these emerging markets?

Ong Boon Teong:
As the region becomes more affluent, customer demands and requirements will become more stringent. Customers would want to be able to use services with acceptable level of quality for each service, in different locations, from different accesses and devices at all times. QoS awareness will become more crucial in future mobile network infrastructure and it would need to be advanced enough to be able to police the multi-service traffic flow based on well mapped-out quality of service definitions.

IQPC:
Where do you see the network evolution cycle heading towards in the long term and what new innovations can users look forward to from Telco’s?

Ong Boon Teong:
In the long term, the network evolution will move towards a trend which encompasses machine-to-machine communications instead of just user-to-user and user-to-machine communications. A new ecosystem of networked electronics will be birthed as more and more appliances are manufactured with network communications chipsets embedded. Users can also look forward to more innovative locationbased augmented reality services too on their mobiles too.

Ong Boon Teong is a panelist at the 5th Annual Mobile Network Evolution summit (22 – 25 March 2010, Amara Sanctuary, Singapore) organized by IQPC Telecom IQ. For more information on the summit please feel free to email enquiry@iqpc.com.sg or visit www.mobilenetworksasia.com