PDF of this tutorialTelecommunications deregulation and the explosion in data traffic and service revenues are forcing carriers to reexamine their approach to providing voice and data services. Indeed, analysts predict that data will consume 90 percent of the world’s bandwidth by 2003. With more than $380 billion in U.S. telephony revenues at stake by 2002, increased competition and technology advances will result in declining revenues from traditional transport services (approximately $100 billion by 2002 ) and the growth of innovative, high-value, network-based services. Shrinking traditional telephony revenues and profitability will force carriers to do the following:
- reduce the number of overlay network platforms; currently, most carriers operate separate circuit-switched (voice and private line), frame relay or asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), and Internet protocol (IP) networks
- cap investment in traditional circuit switches and migrate to a converged switching infrastructure
- provide more profitable, enhanced services from hardware and software platforms designed to deliver integrated telephony-grade voice, video, and data services
The challenges presented by the shift from voice to data dominance will affect the profitability and long-term viability of carriers of all stripes, from incumbents to recent market entrants. Determining and implementing a sound migration strategy from today’s overlay networks to an integrated circuit- and packet-switched architecture is, therefore, critical to the future of all telecommunications carriers.
