Communications Crossroads - Spring 2008 - (Page 14)

Tips for the Transition • Don’t put in a new network unless staff has the expertise to run it. Contact local colleges and universities for potential new staffers with IP networking experience. • Choose quality vendors and build a good network side by side with the old network to gracefully migrate from the old to the new. Build a small “lab” network initially and offer some customers the chance to be beta testers. Trial the new services on this small user group, then roll it out on a large scale. • Leverage the old network. With VOIP, a voice gateway allows calls to go back and forth between an old network and a new one and allows the telecom to build new services for current established customers. It’s also a migration tool to use once the old hardware is retired. “THE WHOLE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE OF SOCIETY HAS CHANGED AND TELEPHONES ARE NO LONGER THE PRIMARY MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. CUSTOMER DEMAND FOR SERVICES LIKE HIGH-SPEED INTERNET ACCESS, CONVERGED EMAIL AND VIDEO-BASED SERVICES CAN’T BE SUPPORTED ON TRADITIONAL PHONE NETWORKS.” new boxes or hire new staff to run it, Auster says. A caution: as more traffic becomes IP, some will suggest that they need IP routers everywhere—and IP routers are pricey and complicated. But they don’t, says Auster. Since 95 percent of traffic comes from the Internet at large or a metro-centralized video headend, providers can, via connection-oriented Ethernet, from the end office, backhaul to/from a hub office and obviate the need for routers everywhere. SureWest has addressed the staffing issue with both retraining and new hires. It began retraining efforts four or five years ago when its migration to IP started. “We had the mindset of offering reliable service and blended that with staffers from the IP side who were enterprise-minded, which enabled us to get service out fast with high reliability to customers,” he said. A big part of the cost of changing to IP service is the initial capital deployment, but IP-based service allows SureWest to reduce costs because it’s easier to maintain. That’s part of the reason that SureWest has only had to explore cooperation with other regional telcos on a very limited basis. As for the big picture, DeMuth feels that most smaller and rural carriers are successfully transitioning and are actually more innovative than the larger telcos. “As long as customers demand new and different services, the providers adapt,” he says. such as standalone SONET, DWDM and Ethernet switches. But it’s costly. A good strategy is for telcos to buy integrated packet-optical equipment that also allows the reuse of their existing equipment,” Auster says. “Using DWDM equipment that supports Ethernet over SONET and native Ethernet provides the best of both worlds, allowing providers to scale their networks where necessary and at the same time continue to utilize network assets they’ve already deployed.” The biggest factor, however, is for carrier staffs to become accustomed to operating and supporting new Ethernet transport and switching systems. This is best accomplished by enabling the use of the same Operations Support Systems and procedures that they have been using all along. Ciena’s connection-oriented Ethernet technology based on VLAN cross-connect or PBB-TE integrated with traditional transport allows this. This is a big advantage for carriers that can’t afford to add a bunch of Success at SureWest Bill Demuth, vice president and chief technical officer for Sacramentoarea based SureWest Communications, says SureWest’s initial transition focus was on business customers. It first offered business customers high bandwidth, then IP services, and later offered the services to residential customers. Another early offering was IPTV. It’s all part of an evolution for SureWest from its origins as Roseville Telephone in Sacramento in 1914. 14 COMMUNICATIONS CROSSROADS www.ustelecom.org http://www.ustelecom.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Communications Crossroads - Spring 2008

Communications Crossroads - Spring 2008 Up Front Contents TeleBites Cover Story: IPTV Technology Today: Network Transitioning: It’s Not a Matter of If, but How Business Advantages: Turning Knowledge and Growth into Profit and Success Industry Calendar Advertisers DotCom Index to Advertisers Straight Talk

Communications Crossroads - Spring 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.