Redefining 'The Digital Strategy' Of New Zealand

Helen Twose

Gearing businesses up for a digital future will be the focus of an impending revision to the Government's Digital Strategy.

The Digital Strategy - originally launched in 2005 - is being revamped in light of rapid technology changes.

Acting manager digital development at the Ministry of Economic Development Janet Mazenier said attitudes to broadband had changed considerably in the the 2 1/2 years since the original digital strategy was launched.

Mazenier - who is in charge of the digital strategy revamp - said back then people weren't sure what broadband was or why they needed it.

Now there is a call for highspeed fibre networks and connections to the rest of the world, she said.

"When I was at Telecom - I left there two years ago - the awareness of what broadband as an enabler could do to enhance our social, cultural, environmental and economic future, wasn't quite there," Mazenier said.

The original target of broadband speeds of 5Mbps delivered to 90 per cent of New Zealanders by 2010 are not relevant anymore, said Mazenier.

People now want speeds of 100Mbps to deliver and receive rich media content, she said.

"There's a mindset shift that has gone on in 2 1/2 years, which has been incredible."

Kicking off the update to the strategy is a Digital Future Summit to be held in Auckland at the end of November.

"Individuals and businesses concerned about broadband speed and access, high-tech business growth, and the social and sustainability issues that technology brings, should all seize this opportunity to contribute to planning for a digital future," said Communications Minister David Cunliffe when announcing the event in May.

Speakers include author of The Long Tail Chris Anderson, world wide web founder Tim Berners-Lee and Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder.

Mazenier hopes to attract the people holding the cheque books - the baby boomers or the "hairy ear brigade" - who make the decisions on technology spending.

Mazenier said there is a culture of innovation and early adoption in New Zealand, but also a whole lot of laggards out there.

"The biggest challenge will be the middle New Zealand businesses - the ones that I have a lot of sympathy for - who are juggling their day-to-day cashflow issues with this thing called digital - what does it mean? Is it just a website? ... How do I make an investment decision around that, why is it important to me, what's the bottom line impact of doing that?" she said.

In the lead up to the summit, businesses are encouraged to participate in online forums to discuss the digital issues impacting their companies.

"If this is so vitally important for our economy then what are we going to do to look at things digital to support our economic growth as well as our social, cultural and environmental sustainability?" said Mazenier.

DIGITAL REVIEW

* The Government has announced it will be updating the Digital Strategy first released more than two years ago.

* The original goals such as 5Mbps delivered to 90 per cent of New Zealanders by 2010 are up for revision.

* Business people are being encouraged to participate in the strategy update, either via online forums or attending the Digital Future Summit in November.

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Telstra Upgrades To Cable Against Government Regulation

TELSTRA is spoiling for a fight with the Federal Government on broadband ahead of the election after signalling that it is working behind the scenes on an upgrade to a cable network connecting 2.7 million homes instead of a high-speed broadband network.
Just a day after Telstra's chairman, Donald McGauchie, delivered a blistering attack on regulation, the chief executive, Sol Trujillo, made it clear the company would not be toning down its demand for changes to telecommunications policy in the lead-up to the election later this year.
Yesterday, Mr Trujillo indicated Telstra was working on alternatives to a fibre-to-the-node network in metropolitan areas, such as an upgrade to the Foxtel cable, which could eventually provide broadband speeds of between 50 and 100 megabits per second to 2.7 million homes.
Industry insiders believe Telstra's attempt to increase pressure on the Government over the construction of a high-speed broadband network in the cities is designed as a smokescreen for the cable upgrade.
Telstra is expected to ramp up the cable's speeds - used to deliver pay TV and next-generation broadband technology - to 30 megabits per second by August, before launching the upgrade a month later.
"As you saw with Next G, we didn't announce Next G before we built it, we just announced it when we did it," Mr Trujillo told reporters yesterday.
Telstra admitted earlier this week that it had started pouring some of the $4.1 billion earmarked for a high-speed broadband network into other investments. It has also left open the possibility of walking away from the Government process to select a company to build a fibre network.
A Citigroup analyst, Tim Smeallie, said the Foxtel cable could offer high-speed broadband to 2.7 million homes at a total cost of under $700 million, less than a fifth of the cost of replacing the copper wires that run from telephone exchanges to street nodes with fibre.
"We have argued for some time that Telstra has many technology options," he said. "The chairman's and CEO's comments suggest that Telstra will not invest in [fibre-to-the-node] until there is a change of regulatory settings and telecommunications policy settings.
"We don't envisage that to occur before the end of the year."
Earlier yesterday, Mr Trujillo echoed his chairman's comments from the day before when he said Australia suffered from a lack of investment in telecommunications because "money has been spent in the wrong places and because the policy settings don't make it economic".
Mr Trujillo's comments failed to provoke a firm rebuttal yesterday from the Communications Minister, Helen Coonan, who would only say: "Telstra's commercial priorities are a matter for the company, but consumers are a matter for the Government and that is why we have set up an expert taskforce to ensure that a new fibre network is built."

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Deverto Systems At A Glance

The time for Next Generation Networks has arrived. Despite the several technological and organizational differentiating factors among the operators, there is one which seems to be the most important element. This is Flexibility. It is about how well the telco – regardless of the size, history in the industry, network capacity, etc. – can meet the requirements of its different users. A user may be a residential client using an ordinary telephone service but wants it cheap, an industry that needs specific, sophisticated telco services in a special bundle or a particular company in an industry who would like the standard services a “bit differently” than the others to have a market differentiator.

Deverto Systems, a successful software development company with excellent references in the NGN and IMS arena, offer a unique combination of IT and telco expertise to design, build and run an efficient and highly performing VoIP network.

The architecture of the platform and the implementation of features enable the operators to use the same software image as Class 4 or Class 5 switch, or provide IP Centrex or other Value Added Services from the same platform thus increasing flexibility and reducing the Total Cost of Ownership.

From the start, the system,is built on standards, hence the integration into the operator’s network (signaling, back office, OSS, CRM, databases, etc,) is made efficient and fast, saving money and time when launching VoIP services or new features on the VoIP network.

Deverto’s solution is a “real” softswitch i.e. there is no proprietary hardware needed to its operation but industry standard components. Therefore, the development is not hindered by bespoke hardware architectures and manufacturing bottlenecks. Moreover, the solution is meeting industry standards on all interfaces, hence the operator is not bound to purchasing and deploying specific or proprietary servers, CPEs, MTUs, Gateways, IP phones, Soft clients, set-top boxes, etc. hence enjoying the freedom to buy the best of the needed components.

The references show a large variety in access technology. They include Cable TV operators of different capacities, ISPs, ADSL resellers, Condominium complex telcos, incumbent wireline operators, challengers and even a member of one of the largest telcos of Europe who practically has all existing access technologies deployed in its access network. Due to the flexibility of the platform the size of the references range from a couple thousand lines to several ten thousand line networks.

The licensing scheme which Deverto offers is simple and is closely linked to the capacity used thus the investment is closely following the served capacity and makes the calculation of the future investment predictable.

In order to meet customer requirements in connecting the VoIP network to legacy telco networks, Deverto has selected AudioCodes to be its gateway partner in delivering signaling and media gateways.

Deverto and AudioCodes with their high quality technologies can meet high standards and can fully satisfy the needs of telcos to provide VoIP service to their clients.

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ITS Telecom – Boosting All Businesses

ITS Telecom, an Israeli high-tech company with 14 years of experience and comprehensive business communications solutions, is a major player in its field.

With a global network of distributors in 45 countries, the company enjoys long-term relations with different partners, including AudioCodes, for which it is an OEM partner and a master distributor in Israel.

Integration, Flexibility, Excellence

Together with VoIP gateways, ITS Telecom's products close the circle of business communication options available today. This union enables businesses to expand their offerings by providing a four-pronged connection: VoIP, cellular, fixed line and PBX. Suited to commonly used interfaces – ISDN PRI, BRI and analog – ITS Telecom's products also fit all communication capacities and budgets. Offering instant integration with existing technologies, these technologies represent a virtually ‘plug and play’ solution.

The CGW-PX (see diagram below) is an AudioCodes OEM that with ITS Telecom's cellular gateway yields an integrated solution for cellular, PSTN and VoIP. Comprised of a high performance ISDN PRI CGW-P (see below) and an AudioCodes VoIP gateway, the CGW-PX is perfect for clients demanding a packaged, tested and approved solution.






CGW-PX: ITS Telecom converged connectivity solution

The CGW-P, a high performance ISDN PRI, is suited for corporations and carriers with heavy communication traffic. This product supports up to 30 simultaneous cellular channels and is flexible enough to support different cellular carriers, and varied technologies such as CDMA, GSM or UMTS . Supporting four SIMs for each channel, the CGW-P enables a total of 128 SIMs to provide valuable communication applications and savings on call costs.

The CGW-I is an ISDN BRI that reduces costs for those companies with an ISDN PBX that require only two or more simultaneous channels.

The CGW-D, an analog FXO/FXS, connects to the trunk or operates as an extension. Incorporating such useful features as call through and call back, this product is ideal for organizations with a low cellular call capacity and with highly connectivity demands.

The analog CGW-T (FXO) is compatible with the analog trunk interface of the PBX. An entry level gateway, the CGW-T perfectly meets the needs of small companies or enterprises with a low cellular call capacity.

Customers Win

For years, ITS Telecom cellular gateways have been integrated with AudioCodes VoIP gateways, and have successfully passed repeated tests and checks. ITS Telecom’s status as a master distributor and OEM partner of AudioCodes make it a vendor of choice for those seeking to incorporate VoIP with cellular gateways.

More ITS Telecom Offerings

In addition to its firm footing in the area of converged connectivity, ITS Telecom supplies a wide range of cellular gateways compatible with different interfaces, cellular networks and customers.

Regarding service and operations, the company’s access control door phones and remote video monitoring contribute to customers’ efficiency, profitability and safety.

Likewise, ITS Telecom control and monitoring products – voicemail and automated attendant, call recording, and promotion-on-hold – enhance clients’ productivity and general business functions.

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