Seize the broadband day

By Rodney Weidemann for Cisco
London, 13 Apr 2005

As broadband penetration grows, a new wave of services is arising, and it is up to service providers (SPs) to capture the opportunities presented by this growth, says an industry expert.

Speaking at a Cisco broadband press briefing in London this week, Fernando Gil de Bernab'e, MD for SPs at Cisco EMEA`s Internet Business Solutions Group, said the customer is driving these new services, as they constantly want more and are quite prepared to pay for it.

"Statistics show that in the past decade, the share of household spend that has gone on communications - as opposed to, say, entertainment - in the developed world has risen by some 50%," he says.

"Therefore, it is obvious that if we are able to develop new services for customers, they will be willing to pay for them."

Gil de Bernab'e says that among these new services are offerings like security and data services, including firewalls and parental controls, advanced communications services, such as voice over Internet Protocol, video telephony and mobility, and entertainment services like Internet radio and video and music on demand.

"Previously we had a vertical model for competition, meaning that depending on the space you played in, such as mobile, fixed-line or data, you knew who your competition was, but competition is very different today, with a deconstructed model meaning that competition can come from just about anywhere.

"SPs need to take advantage of both the consumer and the business aspects of broadband, in order to leverage the new opportunities to the best of their abilities."

He says that to take advantage of the consumer market, SPs need to enter the home networking field, to best be able to ensure service quality, develop more sophisticated marketing strategies such as segmentation and bundling, and partner with experienced players in order to deliver content.

From the business side, SPs need to offer complete, secure, converged solutions, leverage fixed-mobile networks and services, provide total cost of ownership analysis and grow through offering value-added services.

"A good mix of both consumer and business customers is needed for SPs to accelerate their return on investment and the best use of network resources, but I believe that most SPs can find a viable strategy to succeed in the broadband environment. There are no 'doomed` segments in the market."