Aside from increased competition and pricing pressures, mobile operators are facing a multitude of challenges this year.

Migrating to 4G
From an operational standpoint, MNOs are grappling with their migration to 4G, the successor to 3G. In addition to the timing of this migration, to support the kinds of services that consumers expect, carriers are faced with the challenge of providing the necessary high-speed bandwidth to deliver a substantial increase in data rate. From a carrier perspective, the affordability of managing, billing and distributing content over these networks to drive revenue to recover those higher operating costs is another challenge in realizing a 4G vision.

Ensuring Seamless Roaming
Seamless roaming enables a mobile operator’s data subscriber to remain continuously connected as they cross network boundaries and use different radio access networks. Ensuring seamless, international roaming is becoming more and more important as carriers’ heavily valued customers are business subscribers who frequently travel and need their mobile devices to work outside of their home network.

Accounting for SIM Bypass
This year, carriers are also struggling with SIM bypass, when SIM boxes are used to bypass the interconnection between networks and divert international calls to national GSM calls to evade the revenue that operators are entitled to.

For telecom service providers, the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 has been a long time in the making. With IPv4 numbers set to run out by the middle of 2011 according to the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), coupled with the future of the telecom industry revolving around IP, the transition to IPv6 has become increasingly critical to the survival of all service providers. As technologies evolve and the adoption of IP-enabled devices accelerates, IP will enter a new era as the protocol of choice for communications. So what does this mean for service providers?

As the successor to IPv4, IPv6 in short will bring superior reliability and flexibility to the Internet. IPv6 also improves on many of the security shortcomings that exist in IPv4. In particular, IPv6 contains many enhanced security features, such as IPSec.

IPv6 also comes with Quality of Service (QoS) enhancements, allowing premium services for critical Internet traffic, with guaranteed delivery and prioritization.

Additionally, IPv6 will enable businesses to expand their capabilities exponentially without any restrictions or limitations. Using globally unique IPv6 addresses also increases the opportunity for service providers to create new business models, generate additional revenue, and increase the portfolio of services.

Looking ahead, there’s almost no limit to the possibilities of IPv6.

The i3 Forum brings together the communications expertise of more than 37 telecommunications operators representing a combined retail base in excess of 1.5 customers in over 100 countries. The goal of the i3 Forum is to develop collaborative recommendations for an industry-wide transition of voice and related services to Internet Protocol (IP). The forum’s unified effort to expedite global IP-based voice implementation will enhance worldwide communications through supporting widespread access to innovative and high quality IP-based services and applications.

The i3 Forum’s approach is pragmatic, down to earth, and open. The i3 Forum is comprised of forward-looking carriers working for the benefit of the industry as a whole. Additionally, the i3 Forum liaises with other industry bodies such as GSMA, SIPForum, 3GPP and MSF.

The i3 Forum focuses on the international space for both fixed and mobile. With the belief that all will benefit from a clear understanding of the advantages afforded by IP-based interconnections and E2E service delivery, the organization ensures efficient use of resources to delivery better, more secure interconnections.

Through collaboration, the industry as a whole will reap the benefits of efficiency, agility and innovation.

As the first semester of 2010 comes to a close, the IPv4 address pool has dropped to 6%. Another year and we will probably celebrate (mourn?) the end of the IANA IPv4 pool. As Vint Cerf commented on the topic of depletion in an e-mail to Bob Hinden: ‘Sic transit Gloria Mundi’.

The view of an abyss or the fear of judgment day always focuses attention and as a result IPv6 adoption is finally picking up speed. The Google invitational IPv6 Conference in Mountain View clearly illustrated the point. On the transport side Tier-1 ISPs have their networks very much ready for the anticipated traffic surge while a rapidly increasing number of Tier-2 ISPs upgrade their upstream connectivity to dual stack. On the content side, kudos undoubtedly go to Google who progressively made its content accessible in IPv6 including Youtube since February. Needless to say that this created a rather noticeable increase in IPv6 traffic. Some major content providers such as Yahoo and Facebook are also coming along. It can be easily assumed that if the top 10 of the Alexa 500 most popular websites are IPv6 accessible the long tail will follow. The Content Distribution Networks remain relatively timid with the exception of Limelight and Netflix. Here lies an opportunity for the early movers; the growing IPv6 content volumes are theirs to gain. One gaping hole remains the lack of adequate support in some major load balancing products but alternatives are available on the market.

The other front which has been creating a persistent concern is CPE, Customer Premise Equipment. It was refreshing to hear D-Link say that 5 million of their boxes shipped are IPv6-ready. Installed bases of ADSL and Cable modems bases have workaround mechanisms and new ones being installed are IPv6 ready. Outstanding issues often mentioned by everybody in the ecosystem remain lack of training of technical and support staff and the upgrade of back-office systems as well for IT staff to upgrade DNS systems, websites and e-mail systems. A field of opportunities for consulting firms as this becomes more pressing.

While all these activities are underway to forklift the ‘old internet’, the mobile broadband internet continues to grow all around it. The iPhone, iPad and other Androids have ushered the need for true Mobile Broadband. This in turn forces the carriers to accelerate their LTE plans ever more. As of June 7th the GSMA counted 80 operators in 33 countries with firm commitments, up from 64 just two months ago. In the meantime, a further 30 operators are currently in trial mode for LTE making for a total of 110 operators in 44 countries. The ball is undeniably rolling faster and faster.

Last weeks’ Google IPv6 gathering saw presentations by Verizon and T-Mobile which perfectly illustrated the immediate necessity of IPv6 in the mobile world. Verizon will offer its first IPv6 phones in 2011. If one considers that some market researchers project that the sales of smartphones including iPad and iPadlike devices could surpass ‘traditional’ devices, meaning desktops and laptops, within two or three years, we should be in for most interesting times indeed.

It is only fitting that Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, mentioned in his address at the GSM World Congress in Barcelona back in February that support of mobility is a priority in all Google product development.

IPv6 for the masses, masses of IPv6 addresses is within sight.

This post originally appeared on CircleID.

Founded in 2007 and made public in 2008, the i3 Forum has grown from eight members to more than 37 carriers worldwide. Currently carrying 80% of the world’s international voice traffic in more than 100 countries, the i3 Forum is focused on making the transition to an all-IP world easier. Aside from a significant increase in membership, the i3 Forum has seen tremendous results in the past couple of years.

In addition to making pragmatic business, technology and operational recommendations for the benefit of the industry, the i3 Forum has delivered service definitions and SLA guidelines. The i3 Forum has developed interconnection models (private and public, including over the Internet) as well as recommendations on Signaling (SIP and SIP-I), Codecs, Security and QoS. In 2009, the i3 Forum completed early work with GSMA on Voice over IPX.

So what’s to come?

This year, the i3 Forum will focus more on voice. In particular, the i3 Forum will make more recommendations on Wideband and Low Bitrate Codecs. The i3 Forum is working with the SIP Forum on Fax over IP and it is expected to be delivered next September.

The i3 Forum is also developing a new suite of Training Programs on International IP Interconnection with Neotelis, a consultancy that assists telecommunications organizations worldwide.

The i3 Forum announced they will be hosting a two day workshop June 15-16 in Warsaw, Poland. As part of a series of initiatives, the i3 Forum will leverage its extensive industry knowledge to host the Technical Workshop in an effort to further address key issues currently impacting carriers.

In just two years, we’ve seen concrete progress to an all-IP future and the momentum is set to continue!

It is undeniable that we are moving towards an IP-enabled world. However, are we ready?

In short, yes. The industry and Tata Communications in particular is seeing that MNOs are increasingly relying on Application Service Providers such as Blackberry/RIM. Therefore the MNO are demanding high-quality, secured access interconnects into Application Service Providers to deliver such business critical applications which is what the IPX framework was developed for.

The cost efficiency aspect afforded by an IP-based delivery platform is demonstrative of the longevity of IPX. By having only one transport and interconnect technology for all services, MNOs can extend domestic services into the international market with much less overhead, resulting in CAPEX and OPEX efficiencies.

In addition to cost, the industry is also embracing IPX as the future-proof interconnect framework. When all mobile services migrate to LTE including Voice, MNOs will need a quality and secure transport network for all business critical applications.

Although not all MNOs are implementing IPX currently, the migration to an all IP world is bound to happen. And for those MNOs that provide ASP services to their subscribers and want to future proof their interconnection needs when migrating to LTE they will need a interconnect framework.

That framework is the “IPX.”

The last remaining stocks disappear from the shelves more quickly than ever before… IPv4 addresses that is.

As the ARIN met in Toronto in April, an inordinate amount of time was spent yet again debating proposals on how to handle the dwindling stock of IPv4 addresses. I get the distinct impression that some people will still be tabling proposals and discuss the issue long after the last IPv4 block has been allocated by IANA and even the RIR’s themselves.

May 7th we learned that two /8’s had been allocated to RIPE, the European Regional registry. Rumour has it that APNIC is also getting a couple very soon, as well as ARIN. If this materializes only nine ‘slash eights’ will be left to distribute. Depletion clocks are being adjusted; on May 12th Potaroo predicted September 9, 2011 to be the fatidic day for IANA depletion and that on April 8, 2012 the ultimate surviving little block living in liberty will be allocated.

Axel Pawlik, the CEO of RIPE, who is also chair of the NRO provided following rather telling updates on IPv4 and IPv6 address depletion and allocations in a blog for the EGov Monitor:

•During Q1 2010, APNIC, the RIR for the Asia Pacific, allocated nearly 27 million IPv4 addresses to its members, more than any RIR has ever issued in a single quarter.
•APNIC issued 186 IPv6 allocations in the first quarter of 2010 – that is more allocations in three months than it has ever made in any single year.
•For only the second time, LACNIC, the RIR for Latin America and the Caribbean, issued more IPv4 address space than ARIN, the RIR for Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands and the United States.
•Overall, the five RIRs saw an increase of nearly 30 per cent in the amount of IPv6 address space allocated in 2009, which is an encouraging sign that more organizations are preparing for the transition from IPv4 to the new addressing

At the ARIN meeting and yet again at the Canarie- BCnet annual conference in Vancouver we presented the final recommendations of the Canadian IPv6 Task Group urging all stakeholders to seriously start moving.

It was refreshing to see at least one of the Canadian ISP’s indicate that movement is afoot to start commercial deployment within months.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on NRO numbers during summer recess.

This post originally appeared on CircleID.

MNOs are starting to move towards IP communications with the introduction of Long Term Evolution (LTE). As we move further into LTE, MNOs increasingly require the right partner to enable the secure transport of voice, signaling and data services.

Increase Offerings
MNOs should look for a partner that will enable them to add service functionalities as this converged approach offers an efficient way to introduce new application and services to end users.

Leverage a Global Footprint
MNOs should select a partner that has a large global footprint. By doing so, MNOs will have fewer NNI interconnections, allowing them to ensure high-quality.

Access to Economies of Scale
In addition, MNOs can leverage the economies of scale to focus on their core areas of expertise, including building customer relationships, driving revenue from on-net terminations and enhancing value-added services.

MNOs need the right partners to address the challenges of migrating to an all IP world. By choosing the right partner, MNOs can fully benefit from an efficient and future-proof platform for convergence, IPX.

Mid-March a special plenary session of the Canadian standard committee isacc was convened in Ottawa to review the final report of the Canadian IPv6 Task Group. It was unanimously approved and the essence of its 66 pages are seven recommendations for Government,  Industry, Service and Content providers, and the regulator, CRTC to proceed with diligence, even some sense of urgency.

One paragraph provides an interesting new twist to the exhaustion debate: Is the Internet already becoming less reliable as a consequence?  Paragraph 3.1 of the report says:  

Evidence has shown that most of the remaining IPv4 address space is already in use by organizations. Within the few remaining IPv4 address blocks available as of January 2010, 90% of that address space contains prefixes  which have been identified as already in use by some organizations, resulting in decreased reliability. Therefore, the recipients of these prefixes, when allocated, will see unwanted traffic to their networks and many organizations will not be able to reach these recipients’ networks.  In other words, the remaining address space will be less reliable to use than the IPv4 address space already in use. As the remaining address space approaches zero, it is likely that people will experience unreachability of sites and networks as well as more instability in IPv4 routing.

Could we be using dirty prefixes without knowing it? What are the possible consequences?

How do we make sure we get clean addresses from our ISP?  Marc Blanchet’s blog on the topic might provide some beginnings of an answer.

If you consider that the IPv4 address pool has only 24 prefixes (/8’s) left and that 22 of them are dirty, means only two really clean ones are left!  The dirtiest neighbourhoods are 1.0.0.0/8, 2.0.0.0/8 and 100.0.0.0/8 , they’re apparently harbouring nests of address squatters.   

An IPv4 dirtyness index might be a useful addition to the expiry counters. A healthier alternative however might be to start dipping in the IPv6 reservoir.

This post originally appeared on CircleID.

As a technology that enables consumers to gain greater access to better Internet services, WiMAX has captured significant attention in today’s marketplace. In particular, WiMAX can make important inroads to the Indian SME and consumer markets.

Driven by basic broadband needs and VoIP, WiMAX is increasingly being considered as the most viable last-mile solution. The important factors enabling that are

1. penetration of broadband in India is particularly low as there are approximately 6 million broadband connections out of a population of 1.2 billion;
2. there is an underdeveloped last-mile infrastructure in this region; and
3. from a capital expenditure perspective, last-mile buried networks tend to be very expensive.

Since mobility in India is growing at a feverish pace and last-mile routes are limited, WiMAX is the most stable, cost-effective and scalable solution that can deliver last-mile broadband services to most homes as well as small and medium enterprises.

Due to scale, India is the largest single-country WiMAX opportunity in the world. The adoption of WiMAX remains a critical ingredient for prosperity in India by enabling it to become a knowledge-led economy. Tata Communications intends to invest $500 million in the next three years in the wireless broadband space.