WASHINGTON-With predictions that data-particularly e-commerce-will shape the industry’s future, the big question is which enterprise network will handle the most wireless traffic in the New Millennium.
Will it be a network based on Internet Protocol or on voice-friendly circuit-switched network technology? Or something else?
The answer, which has major implications for the wireless industry, was the subject of debate last week between Michael Myers, product marketing director at Lucent Technologies Inc., and Berge Ayvazian, executive vice president of The Yankee Group at the ComNet conference here last week.
Myers argued the future lay in the evolution of a single network that can handle voice, data and video with the high reliability enjoyed today but at speeds far greater than today’s copper-wire local telephone networks dominated by the Baby Bells and GTE Corp.
Myers, whose firm is investing heavily in photon-driven optical fiber technology to carry digital packets, said firms will find it expensive to operate scores of different networks.
But he conceded, “We are a long way from the converged network, a long, long way.” Myers said the attraction to IP-based networks is based on a short-term financial view that has found its full expression in soaring stocks of dot-com firms on Wall Street.
Ayvazian disagreed. “They’ve [telecom firms] concluded convergence is not beneficial to them or their customers.”
Ayvazian said voice traffic should be left on existing telecom networks as long as possible while the Internet matures. He said trying to shift too much voice traffic from circuit-switched networks to the Internet too fast will unnecessarily compromise the development of the Internet. “Forget about bringing voice over,” Ayvazian stated.
Moreover, Ayvazian said data communications and business transactions over the Internet inherently negate the need for voice.
Both men said wireless technology has great potential in the Internet economy, but that promise may not be realized unless there is broader bandwidth and faster processing speeds.
