Consulting Services

Next Generation Networks

Operators are now investing heavily in Next Generation Networks (NGNs), packet-based networks using Internet Protocol (IP) and other new technologies to permit the delivery of multiple services over a common platform. In addition to promising much lower operating costs to network operators in the longer term, NGNs will facilitate the delivery of services additional to basic voice traffic, such as broadband Internet, IPTV and mobility, allowing users to access services and content consistently and seamlessly, regardless of location.

By making service-related functions independent from the underlying technologies used to transport them, NGNs potentially offer unrestricted access by users to different service providers. As well as boosting user choice, this also increases the opportunities for service and content providers to access new demographic and geographical markets, and to increase their competitive edge within a converged communications environment.

Conversely, however, the very nature of NGNs and the way in which they operate signify potentially enormous changes to the telecommunications environment and the means by which it is regulated. Governments and national regulatory authorities will need to assess carefully the likely impact of NGNs on their markets and activities, and may need to consider to amending the ways in which they work in order to address the new challenges.

Established network operators and service providers will need to build an understanding of the ways in which the NGN environment may offer opportunities – and, indeed, threats – to their established business models, and the measures they will need to take for the future. Non-traditional service providers, on the other hand, need to understand how they can best access network resources in order to successfully disseminate their products, and be aware of the possible regulatory implications of offering communications services. NGN networks, like traditional telecommunications networks, consist of a core (NGN) and an access (NGA) network. Each of these networks present different challenges to operators and regulators alike.

With our many years of experience spanning most aspects of telecommunications regulation, network interconnection and access issues, and our management of the well-received TRMC NGN Master Class, InterConnect Communications is ideally placed to help regulators, network operators and service providers – both established and new – understand the implications of the evolving NGN environment and develop and implement suitable strategies.