• Voice SMS—Creating a Service People Will Adopt
• SS7 in an IMS World

Product News

• Natural Access 2005-1 SP3 is Available for Download

Customer Application

• Brasil Telecom

Support Tip

• Unrecognized CG 6565C in Chassis without a Telephony Backplane

Spotlight Events

• Connect 2007 Dates Set for Americas, Europe, and Asia
• Web Seminar

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Voice SMS—Creating a Service People Will Adopt

 By Brough Turner, SVP & CTO, NMS Communications

It is great to think up new communications services based on new technology, it is another thing to find or create a community of users large enough to be useful, provide a user experience that people enjoy, and set price points that are acceptable to a relevant proportion of customers. Today, a case lesson has emerged in Asia that’s instructive for developers everywhere. It’s an exciting new service called Voice SMS or Voice Short Message Service.

Voice SMS was launched in early 2005 under the name “Bubble Talk” by mobile operator Digi in Malaysia using a platform from Bubble Motion. Within six months, more than 35 percent of Digi’s subscribers were using Bubble Talk and the other mobile operators in Malaysia were losing market share. In reaction, these operators were forced to quickly launch equivalent services and did so within the first year.

What is It?

Voice SMS is a fast way to send a short message to another mobile subscriber. In that sense it’s similar to an SMS text message. But Voice SMS is much easier to use. There are no keystrokes to compose the message, you just talk. When I send you a Voice SMS, you receive an SMS text message saying “You have a Voice SMS from Brough. Click here to listen to your message.” One click and you’re listening to my message. In some implementations, it says “Dial *0* to listen to your message. That’s four clicks with the “Send” key, but it’s equally easy for users.

There are additional advantages for Voice SMS over conventional text SMS. The text user interface on mobile phones is great if you use a European language, Kanji, or another widely practiced language. But once you get beyond the top twenty languages, there is little or no support for text messaging. And of course, text messages are of no use to people who are illiterate. Yet they easily learn to use Voice SMS.

Voice SMS is perfect for when you want to communicate but don’t need or don’t want a live conversation—for example when you think the other party is likely to be asleep or in a noisy environment. Voice SMS is a convenient way to give them some information or initiate a non-real time conversation where the other party can delay their response until they are ready.

Perhaps most important, voice conveys emotion and can provide more in-depth understanding than any text message.

Why Not Use MMS?

The mobile industry has already standardized a service that can do everything Voice SMS does and a lot more—that’s Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). It’s fully specified by standards organizations, including 3GPP, 3GPP2, and the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). It’s an evolution of SMS designed to send and receive multimedia messages—graphics, video, audio clips, and so on. In developed markets you may know it as picture mail. But even in developed markets adoption has been slow, awaiting universal handset support and universal network interoperability.

As just one example of the many problems with MMS, I learned that Sprint was offering “SMS Voice Messaging” service in the US, so I surveyed employees at NMS headquarters in Framingham Massachusetts. I found several Sprint subscribers, but none of them had handsets that supported the service!

This highlights a key difference in the Voice SMS services that emerged in Asia—they work with any handset ( 3G, 2.5G or 2G), they work with any network, and they reach any mobile subscriber on any network because they only depend on existing voice telephony and SMS text messaging—two services that are ubiquitous. This any handset, any network advantage is overwhelming!

Will MMS catch up? Probably yes, once the technology is ubiquitous, but that will take many, many years.

Advantages for Operators as Well

The any handset, any network advantage serves operators as well. It means they can target their entire subscriber base from the start. Since it uses SMS text to alert the receiving party, there’s no handset configuration required. The user interface is very simple, so there is little customer education required. The service meets a user need, as demonstrated by its rapid adoption at price points 30 percent to 100 percent above those of text messages.

Then there’s a fantastic potential for follow-on services—voice alerts (sports, weather, traffic, etc.), jokes, premium content (celebrity voices), contests, dating and, of course, advertising—services that are becoming popular where Voice SMS has been successfully deployed.

Voice SMS Status

Today there are over a dozen networks offering Voice SMS services, mostly in Asia. The two leading suppliers of Voice SMS platforms are Bubble Motion and Kirusa who both use NMS solutions. uReach, another NMS customer, has at least one Voice SMS deployment and a minimum of ten other suppliers have announced Voice SMS platforms.

Because the service requires only voice and SMS connectivity, it is also possible for third parties not associated with any mobile operator to offer Voice SMS services. At least one start-up company in the US, Pinger, has launched such a service.

Conclusion

Communications and community are hot areas for new services, but they both depend on what economists call network effects—you have to have a large enough community before the service becomes useful. It’s critical to design your new service so there is at least some functionality available to any potential customer. If it works better with new technology that’s ok, but make sure that everyone can participate whether they have the new technology or not.

Brough Turner may be reached using the Comment form below. Also be sure to check out Brough’s blog at blogs.nmss.com/communications.

SS7 in an IMS World

 By Jon Mechling, Director of Product Management

Carriers and service providers worldwide have started an evolution of their networks from circuit switched to Internet Protocol (IP)-based, packet-switched architectures. Key drivers of this evolution include:

• lower CAPEX and OPEX promised by a common IP-based infrastructure
• the ability to offer a range of new services based on Internet capabilities
• the ability to provide the same set of services regardless of a subscriber’s location or network access technology (e.g., mobile, DSL, cable, WiFi)

A key part of this new network is the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). IMS is a service delivery architecture¹ that specifies a number of network functional elements and interfaces which, when taken together, support the development, deployment, and management of new telecommunications services.

Figure 1—IMS Architecture, showing functional entities and defined interfaces²

Some of the services envisioned for IMS-based networks include:

• two-way mobile video and messaging
• mobile collaboration
• IP-based call centers
• Video-on-demand and content download
• location-based services
• enhanced push-to-talk/view/conference services
• Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC)

Revenue projections for these new services exceed $800B through 2009³—no wonder service providers are excited about IMS!

Metcalfe’s Law—the Value of Interconnectedness

Metcalfe’s Law states that the value of a network goes up with the square of the number of users connected to it. This is because it is not the individual users, but rather their ability to communicate and interact with each other, that adds value. In the case of modern networks, some of the “users” are enhanced services nodes, but the premise remains the same—the value of the network increases faster than the number of end nodes connected to it.

Figure 2—Interconnectedness as the key to a network’s value

As exciting as the prospects of IMS-based services are, it will take years for IMS to become the predominant deployed network architecture, and for IMS-based subscribers to become the majority of end users. The number of fixed-line and mobile telephones is estimated to be in the range of 2 billion worldwide. The number of IP-enabled telephones is a small fraction of that—for example, In-Stat has estimated that 10 million IP phones shipped in 2006 (growing to 164 million in 2010), most of these as part of enterprise networks sitting behind IP PBXs. Meanwhile Ziff Davis has estimated that worldwide VoIP subscriptions will increase from 15.8 million in 2005 to 151.2 million in 2010. Only as we approach 2020 will IMS networks grow (and non-IMS networks decline) to the point where the connectedness between the two domains will become less valuable.

So, even as the number of IMS-enabled subscribers grows (some estimate at rates of 50 percent per year), a key value of IMS-based networks will still be their connectedness to conventional, non-IMS wireline and mobile networks. Likewise, the value of the non-IMS networks will be enhanced by the population of IMS-based subscribers that can access the non-IMS services and subscribers.

The key to this connectedness is signaling. There are many control protocols within IMS—in fact, the IMS specifications exceed 1,500 documents, and cover more than 90 functions and interfaces. The SIP standard, which is the basis of much IMS signaling and control, starts with RFC 3261, but adds 98+ extensions.⁴ But between an IMS-based network and a conventional circuit-switched network, there is one key signaling protocol—SS7.

This signaling connection is represented in Figure 1 by the link between the SGW (Signaling Gateway) and the CS (circuit switched) Domain. If used to carry ISUP signaling, the SS7 connection supports simple call setup and teardown between the two network domains, giving the IMS subscribers (and other IMS enhanced services elements) voice band connectivity to the 2 billion telephones in the world. Likewise, if used to carry TCAP signaling, IMS subscribers have access to TCAP-based services such as 800 #/Freephone, local number portability, Short Message Service, and non-IMS-based mobile roaming (evolving to fixed/mobile convergence). Similarly, IMS subscribers roaming in non-IMS mobile networks will be able to access some of the home network services via CAMEL and WIN protocols carried atop TCAP to the IMS network’s signaling gateway.

In addition to the value of the basic utility of the SS7 link between IMS and non-IMS networks, the fact is that there are hundreds of billions of dollars invested worldwide in SS7 networks and associated equipment (Service Control Points, Service Nodes, etc.). While new investment in such traditional technologies is flat or declining as carriers move toward IP-based approaches such as the IMS⁵, the SS7 infrastructure will continue to be used as the signaling backbone for the circuit-switched networks for the foreseeable future. The same SS7-based circuit-switched services that are valuable to the growing IMS population are just as valuable to the already-enormous circuit-switched population, and will remain so for decades.

NMS’s Role in Signaling

For years, NMS has been a leading provider of SS7 technology to vendors of enhanced services solutions worldwide. Our Open Access™ TX family of signaling boards and our SS7 protocol stack are supporting voice, messaging, and test applications on six continents, in over 100 carrier networks.

For leading-edge VoIP services, NMS offers a SIP protocol stack integrated with the Natural Access development and runtime environment. Our SIP protocol software enables any Open Access CG-based platform or PacketMedia™ HMP application to interface with SIP proxy servers and other SIP-based servers worldwide.

NMS is also developing new products for the emerging IMS market. Key among these will be signaling servers that will allow service applications in the IP environment to access the SS7 network, increasing the accessibility (and consequently the value) of those IP-based services dramatically.

For more information on our Open Access signaling products, please complete a brief product inquiry form.

¹As specified by the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), IETF, and other organizations
²Source: “IP Multimedia Concepts and Services in the Mobile Domain”, by Miikka Poikselka, Georg Mayer, Hisham Khartabil and Aki Niemi
³Source: “IP Multimedia Concepts and Services in the Mobile Domain”, by Miikka Poikselka, Georg Mayer, Hisham Khartabil and Aki Niemi
⁴See http://www.jdrosen.net/papers/draft-ietf-sip-hitchhikers-guide-00.txt
⁵Infonetics Research, 11/06

Product News

Natural Access 2005-1 SP3 is Available for Download

Natural Access™ (NA) 2005-1 SP3 is available for download. The Natural Access Software and Downloads page contains both an incremental install and a full install. The incremental install is convenient if you simply want to upgrade an existing installation. Full installations require that you uninstall any previous versions of Natural Access and are the best choice for new system.

The NA 2005-1 SP3 release includes GA support for the CG 6060C, as well as support for the following operating systems:

Windows® 2000 Professional (Service Pack 4)

Windows 2000 Server (Service Pack 4)

Windows Server® 2003 Standard and Enterprise Edition

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition R2

Red Hat® Enterprise ES, version 3.0, Update 8

Red Hat Enterprise AS, version 3.0, Update 8

Red Hat Enterprise ES, version 4.0 Update 4

Red Hat Enterprise AS, version 4.0 Update 4

X86 Solaris™ 8

SPARC® Solaris 9 (32-bit, 64-bit, and mixed mode)

SPARC Solaris 10 (32-bit, 64-bit, mixed mode)

Customer Application

Brasil Telecom

Brasil Telecom has launched a new call center solution with interactive voice messaging, built upon an advanced speech services platform from NMS Communications (NASDAQ: NMSS) and ITIntegration. The project is being supported by NMS channel partner ECIL Informatica. The Brasil Telecom win adds to NMS’s already-strong presence as a leading provider of technologies and solutions for mobile applications and infrastructure in the large, high-growth Latin American market.

The solution is based on ITIntegration’s ObServer platform, which is powered by NMS’s Open Access media processing platforms. ObServer provides an interactive telemessaging system, integrated with the call center. ObServer’s modular architecture allows the addition of new functionality and features as the contact center customer volume increases.

“NMS’s Open Access platforms offer ease of use, flexible technology and an open standards-based development environment, all of which contribute to reduced time-to-market for our customers’ solutions,” said Alex Sobral, CTO of ITIntegration. “Combined with our software, the Open Access-based ObServer platform provides customers an unequaled capacity to create new applications quickly with modular growth capabilities and simplified integration.”

Max Padro, NMS Sales Director for Latin America, said, “The joint NMS/ITIntegration solution allows Brasil Telecom to offer enhanced speech-driven services to its customers now, and quickly and easily scale to meet growing customer demand and emerging network requirements. With the rapid roll out of VoIP we have seen over the last several months, operators must be ready to make a quick and smooth transition to IP. Our Open Access products are designed with that in mind and are at use in converging networks around the globe.”

About ITIntegration

ITIntegration guarantees total satisfaction to its customers by providing customized software solutions for contact center business. Their main solution is the ObServer Platform®, completely based in software, open standards, modular structure, possible change of scale and integration enabled with any open standard solution. Visit www.itin.com.br for more information.

About ECIL Informatica

ECIL Informatica is a leading solution provider for Telecom, Energy and Automation market in Brazil. The company was funded in 1992, and it has been continually investing to offer products with high own value added. Visit www.ecilinformatica.com.br for more information.

Spotlight Events

Connect 2007 Dates Set for Americas, Europe, and Asia

We are pleased to announce the dates for our Connect Americas, Connect Asia, and Connect Europe events:

Connect Americas
October 2–3, 2007
Boston, MA, USA

Connect Asia
October 17–18, 2007
Guilin, China

Connect Europe
November 7–8, 2007
Madrid, Spain

Registration and hotel details will be made available over the next few weeks. Watch this newsletter for more information or register to keep informed about future Connect events. If you are interested in speaking or exhibiting, please contact Christine Krajewski at +1 508 271 1129.

For detailed information on NMS’s participation in industry events, conferences, and seminars, visit the Events Calendar.