Nearly 500 industry professionals attended the combined IN-IP World Forum and OSS Summit March 10-13 in Orlando.
Presentations and discussions focused on successful and profitable "hot spots" in the industry. The majority of the focus was on improving returns on the existing network and quality services.
- Operational cost reduction is the major issue. IP service and equipment providers are focusing on the aspects of their business where they can provide real and measurable value.
- International attendance and interest continues to grow. This year more than 30 managers and decision makers from overseas attended the IN-IP World Forum.
- In the area of quality management of services, end user demand remains strong and customer expectations are high. While end users seek the operational cost reduction benefits associated with IP, strong concerns remain regarding the security and reliability in bringing IP service to deployment scale. Results showing experiences where IP networks replaced TDM networks were shared and discussed.
- Trends toward self service continue to grow. As a logical extension of initiatives to reduce cost and automate quality management systems, providers are exploring niches where self service applications can provide rapid payback and can be extended to additional customers.
- Enterprise users are showing a significant and growing interest in VoIP. Motivated by operational cost reduction, they are interested in deploying IP services in implementation plans that make sense for their business. While individually seen as small networks, enterprise users as a market show a trend toward VoIP.
