The E-World is coming and coming faster than most people think. With the emergence of a new generation of networks known as third generation or simply as "3G", and the development of a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), new applications that will soon radically change people`s lives are in the offing.
"Third generation networks will trigger application developments that will increase people`s entertainment options and productivity to a degree unheard of today," says Malcolm Bayes, regional director Africa for the wireless division of Nortel Networks.
Bayes, who presented a paper on the "Evolution to UMTS" at the recent GSM Africa conference in Cape Town, says Nortel Networks is close to bringing 3G networks to reality by meeting UMTS standards and by offering true Unified Networks with a packet-switched backbone able to deliver any communication service anywhere.
"We are standing on the threshold of the E-World - the mobile multimedia experience - which will result from our ability to merge the wealth of information found on the Internet with the freedom and convenience of mobile communications."
To take advantage of the business opportunities brought about by the E-World, Bayes says new expertise and partnerships will have to be developed to initiate and establish a new value chain to meet consumer demand, followed by the convergence of the telecommunications world with the Internet protocol (IP) world.
"These are the foundation upon which a new generation of high bandwidth, high performance and high reliability networks can be brought online to simplify and enrich consumers` lives."
In its development of Unified Networks, Nortel Networks is drawing on a variety of technologies based on the expertise that the company holds in the fields of GSM and CDMA wireless systems as well as IP and networking.
Bayes says the first commercial services of UMTS will be delivered in Europe before the end of 2001 and will be the enabling force behind the next communications market boom. Wireless communications is already an industry in transition as the mobile telephony market has increased at incredible rates. Some 485-million global users are forecast in the year 2000.
"These users are adopting more and more new services as soon as they are offered, pushing existing networks close to their limits. Competition among wireless network operators is getting stronger, leading to price wars which erode average revenue per user. Multimedia applications and Internet-based services are consuming huge amounts of bandwidth on fixed networks while generating extraordinary volumes of traffic.
"Such market pressures are behind the growing interest in emerging UMTS technology. It is a technology that paves the way to a world of personal multimedia mobility."
Bayes adds that the Nortel Networks vision is to deliver a unique concept of "wireless Webtone", encompassing reliable access to personalised information and interactive multimedia services. In Webtone, the "Web" means user-driven innovation, accessibility of rich multimedia, content and rapid service evolution while "tone" means the implicit trust, on hearing a dial tone, that ubiquitous global connectivity is reliably present.
He sees UMTS services being present everywhere and being seamless, enabling users to access communications, information and entertainment services regardless of their location, local network or type of terminal.
"The concept of the virtual home environment (VHE) will be fundamental to the end-user`s experience of UMTS. People will be able to use each service in a way that is intuitive and consistent with the context within which it is delivered - without having to learn different modes of interaction.
"A UMTS capability will liberate people and companies from the location restraints of wired communications and affordably deliver higher levels of flexibility, control, personalisation and spontaneity.
"The incredible variety of services that UMTS will enable will create true differentiation in the marketplace, helping operators to develop customer loyalty, extend market reach and develop new business opportunities with new customers and partners."
UMTS sets the stage for the unique Nortel Networks IP-optimised Unified Network concept. Doug Batchelor, regional director Africa for Nortel Networks Enterprise Solutions division, says a completely IP-based network will significantly simplify network operations.
"All components of a Unified network will have the same IP interface to the network. All network management traffic will travel in a standard format through this IP interface and be routed to the network management system.
"We are paving the way for this with the introduction of Open IP Environment software that will Internet-enable a wide variety of servers, personal computers, mass market appliances and consumer electronic devices. The software provides a fundamental building block, making the Internet accessible to everyone through all manner of devices and at reduced cost. We have also issued licences to more than 75 software, microprocessor and Internet appliance companies, Including Microsoft and Intel, to embed the Open IP Environment software into their products.
"This expansion of the mobility dimension and exploitation of convergence technologies accelerates the path towards 3G and makes mobile multimedia services more accessible and more affordable."
In line with this, Batchelor adds that Nortel also has a co-operation agreement with Intel to work together on a new generation of software programmable networking devices that will see elements of the Open IP Environment added to the Intel Internet Exchange (IX) architecture.
"The Open IP software is a new world approach to routing, a major source of performance and reliability problems within the Internet and private internetworks. It has enabled us to significantly reduce the prices of our commodity access data routers, which are now up to 50% cheaper than the competition. Routing through software inherent in Internet devices is the way of the future.
"In an end-to-end IP network, service development and creation will be much easier and faster compared with today`s circuit-switched environment. Third parties will be able to use the open IP architecture to develop service logic residing outside the core network, using standard hardware and software components."
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