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.

War, famine, pestilence and death.

They fought for the last IPv4 addresses, hoarded and sold them at outrageous prices, traffic and commerce came slowly to a halt… Pestilence invaded the internet …..

Bandits roam the lands. A retired general told recently that the internet looks like the North German plains, easy to invade. Cyberwar and Cybersecurity are becoming mainstream subjects and have increasing Government attention.

In France an ultra-secure lab was set up in Nancy to handle and find antidotes for the most dangerous of these viruses to avoid a Ebola type pandemic. They manipulate these viruses in a network completely isolated from the rest of the internet. As isolated and sterile as a P4 lab for infectious diseases.

Nasty IPv6 strains? Masquerading as someone else was supposed to be more difficult with IPv6 as address abundance would result in much less Network Address Manipulation. But the NAT remains a source of possible pestilence. And will privacy options in IPv6 making it easier still for bad guys to hide?

In the meantime the reality of the paucity of IPv4 addresses sinks in. Five percent of the space left and the IANA granaries will be empty in 300 days or so.

The world notices. The Renesys (5) reports which provide the pulse of the internet to all its serious practitioners noted that over the late july 10 day period 440 new IPv6 prefixes were registered compared to 1449 IPv4 prefixes. 23% of all registrations are now IPv6. This proportion will certainly continue to rise quite rapidly.

The white, red, black and pale stallions will remain in their stables.

This post originally appeared on CircleID.

Tuesday, June 29 at the Cisco Live Conference Las Vegas, John Chambers announced their newest product, the Cius tablet aimed at the enterprise market and positioned as a mobility product. That very same day a two hour IPv6 deployment panel, moderated by Cisco’s Alain Fiocco, featured Google, Microsoft, Comcast and Tata Communications in front of a room filled to near capacity.

The nature of the audience was interesting. Compared to previous years, when asked about their affiliation, the number of hands raised for the category ‘enterprise’ was signicantly higher. ISPs, Government and Education sector used to dominate but Industry now seems to have finally taken notice.

The session was prefaced by John Chambers’ video, the same one presented at the Google IPv6 Conference some weeks ago, announcing Cisco’s commitment to IPv6 support on all product lines. Top down works in most Corporations, so the various fiefs and divisions will certainly take notice as they will most likely be regularly probed on their progress. Let us assume that their bonuses will also be linked to some IPv6 related deliverables, this always brings quite some focus.

What remains of the increasingly putrid IPv4 address pool seems to dry up even faster under the scorching sun of the Vegas Valley. The exhaustion counters agree that a year from now the IANA pool will be dry while some pundits hypothesize a final run on the remaining IPv4 address blocks. Why not a betting site on the exact IPv4 exhaustion date? after all this is Vegas. Allocation of ever smaller blocks remains a temptation, ignoring the fact that associated table sizes would put possibly unbearable strain on routing and affect service quality. ‘Business continuity’ is becoming the new mantra for a more rapid adoption of IPv6. The perceived issues, not surprisingly are the lack of training and back-office readiness as already voiced at the Google Conference.

In the meantime the tier 1 networks are ready, the active IPv6 BGP table is now well over 3000 and shows a healthy growth, content is increasingly IPv6 accessible, operating systems are ready and IPv6 trickles down all the way to the eyeballs, in other words the end-user. Some end-user customers even switched to Comcast, just to be part of their IPv6 trial.

When I will see ‘IPv6 ready’ written on a Cisco Linksys box at Future Shop, I will buy one. I am also eagerly waiting for Videotron, my cable and internet provider, to follow in Comcast’s steps. And by the way, we were told that Cius is Android based and IPv6 ready.

IPv6 is doing well under the desert sun and summer heat.

This post originally appeared on CircleID.

We participated in a two hour panel session on IPv6 Deployment at the Cisco Live Conference in Las Vegas on June 29. Beside Tata Communications, other panel members were from Comcast, Google and Microsoft; the session was moderated by Cisco. We can all be proud of our dual stack IPv4/IPv6 globe spanning AS6453 IP network to which all other panel expand participants happen to connect. Cisco Live is again a major event this year and is attended by more than 9000 participants.

According to their website, Google “believe[s] that IPv6 is essential to the continued health and openness of the Internet – and that by allowing all devices on a network to talk to each other directly, IPv6 will enable innovation and allow the Internet’s continued growth.”

Google is undeniably a powerful player embracing the next-generation Internet Protocol, but will their IPv6 push be a tipping point?
Last year at a conference, Google activated Google maps, enabling IPv6 access and within 24 hours, IPv6 traffic had tripled. Along those lines, more recently, Google decided to IPv6 enable Youtube.com.

By “quietly” turning on its IPv6 support for its YouTube video streaming website, a spike of IPv6 traffic was sent across the Internet. This demonstrates not only the clear need for a globally accessible Internet, but also shows that content providers would suffer from lack of IPv4 address space more so than anyone else.

As one of the most aggressive adapters of IPv6, industry observers are hailing YouTube’s upgrade as a sign of the growing momentum for IPv6. And slowly, but certainly, Google is nudging the world towards adapting IPv6.

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.”