Mr Stuart Dobbin, Head of Asia for Cable & Wireless, shares his perspective on the broadband and wireless trends that are likely to shape the industry and the challenges in integrating new technologies into their business offerings.
About Cable & Wireless:
Cable & Wireless is one of the world's leading international communications companies. It provides fixed and mobile voice, data, IP (Internet Protocol) and broadband services to business and residential customers, as well as services to other telecoms carriers, mobile operators and providers of content, applications and Internet services.
Cable & Wireless' principal operations are in the United Kingdom, the Caribbean, Panama, Macau and Monaco. In Asia Pacific, its principal operations are in China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and Australia.
Q: What are some global broadband (wired/wireless) trends that are shaping the industry?
Stuart:
Working across continents, Cable & Wireless sees that there are three main trends that will have a pervasive impact on the industry in the short and medium terms:
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Mr Stuart Dobbin, Head of Asia for Cable & Wireless feels that to stay relevant in the competitive landscape, service providers need to adopt a clear focus based around core competencies and to leverage these strength
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a. Ethernet adoption is growing rapidly. It will become the access media of choice for enterprise customers and will increasingly be adopted for consumer delivery. Ethernet is a very scalable solution and can be upgraded quickly and simply, meeting the rapid growth needs of customers. We are increasingly seeing demand for Ethernet access from our customers across Asia and now support Ethernet access in 12 countries as the standard. We also see the emerging demand for Ethernet WAN services: both point to point and multipoint as well as VPN services such as VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service)
b. WiMax (802.16e) will be adopted in most Asian markets over the next 12-18 months. This will enable new operators to begin to offer mobile services driving fixed mobile convergence. It will also provide alternative competitive local access services. This will certainly be the case in Singapore where spectrum has already been auctioned to operators.
c. 3G/HSDPA services will drive growth in mobile data services over the next 12-18 months and we will see corresponding growth in content providers as a result.
Q: How important is the contribution of broadband to the economic competitiveness of countries in the region?
Stuart:
As a global telco, we think broadband will be extremely important as it will drive the growth of the global digital economy. It will also lead to an increase in both the volume of communications and also the "anywhere, anytime, anyplace" world we are rapidly becoming. Broadband services such as HSDPA will also provide new means of Internet access in more remote areas, for example, in sprawling countries like Indonesia. The ubiquity of a high speed, scalable, flexible broadband service will drive both productivity and efficiencies in all avenues of commercial activity. It will become a key enabler to growth and future prosperity.
Q: What do you think would be the next killer application that will drive broadband adoption? What kind of benefits would they bring?
Stuart:
Entertainment services will drive market growth through HDTV, IP TV, Mobile TV, network based interactive gaming and community based services. These services will be delivered over both fixed and mobile networks and will be increasingly personalised as we see the emergence of what may be termed the Next Generation User.
Q: What are some of the growth drivers for Cable & Wireless in Singapore and the region?
Stuart:
We are seeing growth in demand for IP VPN QoS (MPLS) services across the region as our customers across various industries increasingly migrate away from bandwidth or Frame Relay solutions.
We are also seeing rapid growth in demand for our Managed Services and also for our carrier community services including Carrier MPLS (a carrier to carrier inter-connection service) and 3GRX, which is being driven by 3G and HSDPA deployments.
Q: What are some of the challenges faced by Cable & Wireless when adding new technologies to its service offerings?
Stuart:
We always ensure that we undertake a thorough technical evaluation of any new technology which we refer to as "type approval". Under this, our network architecture and design teams run a series of detailed tests on the performance of the technology, equipment or service feature. This includes inter-working with existing network elements and also tools and systems. Only once this has been completed do we release the technology, platform or service for use by customers. In parallel, a service that includes all commercial packaging and process development activities will be launched where we bring a new solution or service to the market.
Q: Given the declining voice revenue and greater competition from cable companies, telecommunication service providers, how is Cable & Wireless redefining its traditional carrier role and its service offerings?
Stuart:
We have adopted a very clear strategy for the future. Our priority is on the largest international users of telecommunications services focusing on managed IP services, delivered with excellent customer service, therefore adding value to our customers' businesses. Our objective is to align Cable & Wireless' resources behind these customers (i.e. supporting them where they need us).
From our experience and feedback from customers, we know that we must enhance the customer service experience, thus we initiated Project Laser to deliver great service to our customers. Project Laser is focused on several key areas: provisioning, incident management and training. Delivering service to our customers is not a fad but top of everyone's agenda at Cable & Wireless.
The services that we will be supplying to our customers will be based around managed IP VPN and managed services, for example, IP Telephony, Security, etc. This represents a shift away from a traditional carrier-focus based on bandwidth and minutes. That's not to say voice will be unimportant as we believe that there are excellent growth opportunities for Cable & Wireless in Global VoIP services in the region.
Q: What advice would you give to companies trying to stay relevant in the competitive landscape?
Stuart:
We would advise service providers to adopt a clear focus based around core competencies and to leverage these strengths. It will also be necessary to develop new services and solutions for customers and end users and therefore a clear understanding of their demands and requirements will be paramount.
We believe it is essential that Client Managers have appropriate domain experience so that they are able to fully understand the challenges and needs facing the specific industry.
Q: What are some strategies that Singapore should consider to ensure that it remains competitive in this digital age?
Stuart:
We would recommend that Singapore ensures a flexible, highly scalable broadband network that can support the rapidly growing corporate data requirements, Internet growth driven by IP TV and gaming, new entertainment services and increasing mobility be developed.
We are becoming an "anywhere, any place, any time" society. Having the technology and capability that supports this would enable Singapore to remain competitive and be attractive to foreign investors.
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