The migration to an IP interconnect model will be gradual and the winners will be the companies that seek to validate the commercial model early in the transition process.
This will enable them to develop the know-how to connect with each other, deliver and receive services, and pay and get paid for doing it.
Shifting a proportion of a service provider’s traffic to IP yields learning about different functions, such as the consistent handling of IP-based services across providers and their networks.
Other functions include the structuring of IP Interoperability agreements and settlement processes, as well as performance metrics that may not be reminiscent of the TDM world.
Platforms such as IP Packet eXchange (IPX) provide the necessary commercial and technical framework for service providers to validate the model and develop the same level of fluency in IP as they have in TDM through carefully prescribed investments.
Such platforms allow them to easily implement end-to-end IP interconnectivity “at scale” with minimum upfront fixed investment and to monetise the emerging IP interconnect model, providing options to:
- increase related revenue and EBITDA through a consolidation of interconnections, leading to reduced network costs
- reduce financial and operational risk
- enable high-quality connections end-to-end
- gain financial benefits from interconnecting IP-based voice with traditional voice
- create new strategies and sustainable business models that will equip telecom operators to compete more effectively against inherently internet-based competitors
- prepare for the interoperability requirements of future technology such as LTE (Long Term Evolution, 4G) and for an application-based user experience
- offer multiple services across one platform, saving on the previous “stove pipe” approach, which is hungry for network and maintenance resources