Pipeline Publishing, Volume 4, Issue 1

	This Month's Issue:
	Come Together: Fixed-Mobile Convergence

Finding Your Identity: Fixed-Mobile Convergence and ID Management

By Bohdan Zabawskyj and Jeff Popoff

The market readiness of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) technologies is still an open question. Home zone technology is the least disruptive and fully market-ready, while the introduction of mainstream IMS-based SIP services remains at least 3-5 years away. Regardless, the transition to total FMC is inevitable. It is only a matter of when, not if.

According to research from Heavy Reading, differences in the core networks of fixed and mobile technologies will all but disappear by 2012. Operators are in varying stages of integrating their fixed and mobile networks and services to drive operating and capital cost efficiencies, to leverage economies of scale and to provide competitive bundled offerings and complementary distribution channels for content and services. In an FMC environment, operators will be able to leverage their respective brands while simultaneously tailoring product packages to meet the specific requirements of subscribers.

One key strategic enabler underlies the successful consumer adoption of FMC: subscriber identity management across multiple services and networks. FMC services, such as UMA and SIP-based dual-mode services are making possible the convergence of subscriber services across multiple access networks.

However, federation of subscriber identity across all networks brings with it significant challenges. Mobile operators must address regulatory concerns over identity privacy; they must evaluate the commercial value of "follow-me" service personalization, including availability management; they must coordinate the bandwidth policy management of so-called "free-rider" IP services such as P2P file exchanges. This article addresses the ways in which operators can seamlessly adopt and bring to market FMC technologies while protecting subscriber privacy and preferences.

The authors explore best practices for subscriber identity management and present a straightforward examination of the fixed-

In an FMC environment, operators will be able to leverage their respective brands while simultaneously tailoring product packages to meet the specific requirements of subscribers.

mobile convergence space as it stands today.

Current market readiness of FMC technologies

Initial FMC attempts were based on Intelligent Network (IN) architectures but experienced limited successes due to operational complexities and costs resulting from an absence of end-to-end approaches for provisioning and operational management of subscribers and services. Some limited successes led to wireless identity management such as Home Zone for consumers and Tiered Billing for enterprises. However, the underlying SS7 protocol of IN architectures was connection-oriented and designed predominantly for voice services, and by the mid to late 90’s, it was soon recognized that IN approaches fell well short of expectations.

This shortcoming was rectified in the early 2000’s with the development of open architectures such as Parlay, IMS, SIP, eTOM, and SOA. These technologies provided a more highly integrated and end-to-end view of subscribers, and furthermore were designed to be amenable to multi-media and Internet services. Many operators today are well underway in deploying IMS, which will be the key core network technology underpinning FMC. Additionally, the rapid evolution of ‘smart phones’ has helped to realize mobile delivery of multimedia services using FMC networks by placing sufficient features, bandwidth, and processing power directly into the hands of subscribers.

How subscriber identity management is proving a key enabler for FMC

FMC has the potential to do for communications what Apple did for mobile music, TiVo did for television, and Amazon did for books. Lest there be any doubt about the business value of identity management, consider the example of three companies that sell identical underlying commodities (books in this example). One company offers identity management and personalization, the other two do not. As a result, between 2004 and 2005 Amazon’s sales grew 18% compared to 3% for Barnes & Noble Bookstores and 5% for Borders/Waldenbooks (Source: www.fonerbooks.com/booksale.htm).

The personalization of FMC is defined by total subscriber freedom: the freedom to control

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