NP: Telecommunications market may have a tough year, impacted by the troubled financial sector. Vendor consolidation presents opportunities as well as challenges. All in all, Telenity is poised to have a better year than 2007, as 2008 will be a harvesting year for the company in the SDP and Location space, very timely with the increasing market demand.

 

NP: Penetration of SOA into the Telecom space, especially in the OSS and VAS domain altered the Services related outlook of many operators. Video and 3G also had some impact, but not as much as originally predicted.

 

NP: Skype’s biggest impact has been as a proof of business model viability. However, after the e-Bay acquisition, it did not perform as well as before. Skype’s disruptive service and technology has resulted in incumbent Telcos to accelerate theirVoIP deployment plan with end-to-end quality of service. Skype has made VoIP very popular in telecom market. Its cheap voice service (PC to PC or PC to Mobile/Landline and vice versa) has slowed down international traffic for the telecom service providers. Skype is generating enough call volume to have considerable impact on the growth of international calling. According to TeleGeography, Skype has generated about 14 billion minutes of international traffic throughout 2006.

 

In addition to consumer users, enterprise users are also increasingly using Skype to gain productivity. Skype and other VoIP providers are now focusing on offering mobility and Value Added Services (e.g., Voicemail, SMS, and Video). SuchIP based VAS services inter-operate with Telco network and potentially bring SMS and VAS revenues.

 

NP: They will be filling the gap between the internet and telecoms, each targeting a slightly different space — Apple at the consumer, Microsoft at the enterprise, Google probably both. Apple’s iPhone and Google’s open platform initiative (Google’sAndroid  Wireless) will enable many 3rd party applications and media rich services delivered directly to end-users with rich user experience. Telcos will either directly compete or partner with the big brands by opening up their network (walled garden model) through standardized service delivery platforms (SIP and Web Services based). Open networks will simulate the development of new services and applications (mobile 2.0) linked with Social networks and internet community. These changes will enable new business models and increase value-added services revenues to the Telcos.