Converged networks lack adequate business tools

WHILST IT'S blinding obvious that converged networks are the way to go, it's also apparent that C21 [21st Century] networks won't get rapidly rolled out until adequate business tools arrive.

There's a general consensus that networks built around a set of standards collectively known as IMS [IP Multimedia Subsystem] will eventually replace the fragmented - and single purpose - telecoms networks which exist today.

Indeed the biggest advocate of this changeover is the UK's own BT with its plans for a C21N network.

Yet chatting to a major supplier of IMS management software, Tektronix, showed that the industry's obsession with technology is once again clouding swift progress.

Building a truly converged network based on IMS is generally recognised as extremely complex. Still, Sandeep Raina, product marketing director with Tektronix, revealed that most major players - including BT - are already building test IMS networks.

So how are network operators going to know when the time is right to throw the switch and migrate to IMS? When's a good time to launch an Instant Messaging (IM) service which works across both fixed and mobile networks using IMS, of course?

Raina could only hint that with serious data mining techniques, business executives could eventually determine when it might be cost effective to migrate to IMS.

The answer, it appears, is to look at the mass of data a test IMS network can produce and extrapolate from there. In other words, until business tools are introduced building a business case for a C21 network ain't going to happen too quickly. µ