Convergence soon brings added value for end users in the Middle East (page 3 of 3)

"So if you can send a multimedia message from your mobile phone you can also have that facility in your fixed network with new terminals."

Fixed operators have looked enviously at mobile handsets and tried to replicate them. "Our thinking is: why not use the mobile phone through the fixed network?" asks Ilmarinen. "User experience of the mobile networks has led to consumer acceptance. You can use your phone at home and on the move. You have your personal number directory that you have with you at all times. There are many advantages like that for the end user."

"The evolution of fixed and mobile networks will take time, he says, "but if the architecture is the same then the interoperability and the service convergence can be implemented very easily."

And then, he says, think about this from the fixed network point of view. "There are questions about how to move from the circuit-switched environment to the packet switched environment," he notes. "Are you moving to the fixed network softswitch or are you going to the IMS architecture? In my mind the key thing is that if you just move to the fixed network softswitch you only update the voice service."

The Nokia convergence solutions for fixed and mobile networks are based on the IMS architecture, supporting the above-mentioned services, both voice and multimedia services. Nokia has developed standard open IMS architecture based on 3GPP release 5. The next 3GPP release 6 will be available in 2006, already including softswitch functionality as in Next Generation Network evolution.

"With Nokia IMS architecture, then you really build the network architecture also for future services," he says. "And that means multimedia services. Only updating the technology for the existing voice service is not, in my mind, a good investment."

The first converged services are being explored now. "We are now in the first phase, with services that are either in mobile or in fixed networks. But IMS enables services such as client presence, push-to-talk, video serving, streaming kinds of applications," he adds. "You have to have voice over IP also. When you look at the revenue that operators have now it is voice that is the biggest part. That's why it is important that it is there, as well as multimedia services. You need both."

Why is this happening now?

"A lot of the basic technologies are now there," he says. "There is digital content now: all content can be digitised very easily. Multi-radio terminals are coming, so that gives WiFi access. Nowadays in the digital home you already have three different means of radio access — Bluetooth, WiFi, and GSM/3G — and that's not just phones. With PCs you get the same thing — you can have a multi-radio terminal there also."

All of this is happening around IP, says Ilmarinen. "IP has made it possible to bring broadband and mobile together. All services will be implemented on top of IP protocols, and the IMS architecture is adopted into the networks. . In order to support end to end IP connectivity, Nokia solutions also support also end to end SIP protocol from the mobile terminal, through Nokia DSLAM for DSL access to the Unified Core Network.

"Fixed Mobile Convergence is an evolutionary process for future communications networks and services. And the key thing is that convergence is creating new value for the end users," concludes Jussi Ilmarinen.