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In considering the issue of Standards, Pipeline took a moment to speak with Keith Willetts, Founder and Chairman of the TeleManagement Forum, industry consultant, and general expert on the space. Here's what he had to say:

Q: Thanks for taking the opportunity to speak with us, Keith. TMF is obviously a leader in the area of standards. Why are standards so important to telecommunications?

A: Well, if you go right down to a basic level, mankind would never have built the most complicated machine on the planet, ...

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Cisco Systems has been chosen by the U.S. military to provide IP routing software for a satellite-based router system project. The three-year project will be managed by Intelsat and is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2009. Intelsat expects the technology to be eventually used for commercial purposes, although its first priority is for military use.

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The annual TeleManagement World show in Nice is approaching quickly. As is generally the case, OSS types around the globe are getting jazzed for several days of innovation, technology, and Mediterranean sunshine. Here at Pipeline, we thought we'd take a look at what the show will have in store for you, our readers, and the rest of the attendees.

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Big Business but no IT
Providing ICT solutions to the world’s large enterprises is big business for a sizable number of outsourcers, both network and IT. For the business services division of a network outsourcer, for example, large-scale ICT solutions can account for 40% or more of total revenue despite representing only a tiny proportion of all business services customers. Such a revenue figure is a material contribution to creating shareholder value. For IT outsourcers, ICT solutions represent all, or nearly all revenue.

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As the mix of service provider offerings become more IP centric, the need to overhaul existing service performance management techniques becomes increasingly acute. Historically, performance measurement of traditional fixed line services was well understood and very robust, this changed with the advent of converged networks and IP based services. In today’s environment, service performance management is proving to be an area of considerable challenge both from a technology and cost perspective. These challenges are compounded by the fact that the infrastructure itself is still evolving as more...

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Over the past several decades, information technology (IT) professionals at service provider organizations have struggled with integrating the diverse operational and business systems present in their environments.  While they have in some cases found technologies such as enterprise service busses (ESBs) to connect systems together, they have continued to hit challenges in getting these systems to understand data that is exchanged between them, or put more simply, to “speak the same language.” This difficulty led to a desire to develop some form of common model for information exchange.

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Today’s telecommunications service providers (SPs) are reliant on IT systems that no longer reflect the dynamism of today’s telecoms market. To survive and prosper, they need to standardize the way that new customer-driven services are introduced, processed and implemented across their entire IT infrastructures.

Standards. They've always been a cornerstone of civilization. Standard, common languages allowed communication within and among societies. Standard currency allowed the expansion of trade and a move away from the barter economy. One of the legacies of the Chinese Qin Dynasty was the standardization of the axle-lengths of trade carts. Standard axles meant a standard wheelbase, which meant standard ruts on standard roads. The techniques greatly aided trade. Likewise, one of the few lasting positive consequences of the Articles of Confederation, which was in place in the United States before the Constitution replaced it, was the standardization of a system of weights and measures. Standards are important.