Next Generation Networks

Whilst digitisation allowed for the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications services through reduction of all services into bits that could be carried across any platform, it is through new IP-based networks that seamless communication across integrated networks can be realized. Such networks are generally referred to as Next Generation Networks (NGN) and are evidenced in the increasing number of lower cost, IP-based services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and IP Television  (IPTV).

The shift from circuit-switched to packet-switched protocols allows traditionally distinct PSTN, wireless, DSL, 3G, CATV and potentially new Power Line Communication networks to be integrated through common standards. The layered nature of these NGNs’ architecture allows for the separation of the service from the transmission layers and permits new services to be offered independently of the underlying infrastructure on which they run. A significant characteristic of IP based networks is the ability to distribute intelligence across the networks from the core to the periphery, unlike traditional Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN), enabling the connection of different types of access networks at their intelligent edge. This is critical for the growth of potentially cheaper, decentralized services and the seamless connection of networks that enhances the network effects or positive multipliers.

Combining IP-based services with lower-cost rapidly deployable wireless technologies, has enabled the easy entry into the market by new service providers, some of whom have been able to circumvent technical and regulatory restrictions, often undermining the rationale for regulation and potentially the revenues of traditional PSTN.

Despite prohibitions on many of these IP-based services in many developing countries, the significance of this type of network for countries with limited infrastructure is that considerably more efficient IP-based networks could be rapidly and flexibly deployed. Unencumbered by the financial and technical concerns of those countries with extensive legacy networks, such countries would be able to benefit from open standards and global economies of scale and scope. Countries without these obstacles or those that rapidly reach a decision on how to enable IP-based networks will have an access to marlets and are more likely to achieve a more widespread ICT diffusion .

With the rise of rapidly deployable wireless networks and open access approaches to network development becomes a feasible way of deploying next-generation broadband networks in areas which have historically been regarded as uneconomic by large operators or which fixed lines services have simply not yet reached. An open access approach to networks allows multiple service providers to compete over the same network at wholesale prices or allows a municipality or community to erect a network for local usage.