Industry Voices

On the surface, cloud or IT infrastructure service initiatives appear to be attractive offerings for telecom service providers, but are they? Cloud or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) explicitly involves network services and hosting/IT infrastructure services. However, telecom operators have been slow to adopt these new services.

Innovations in technology have meant leaving behind cherished LPs and cassette tapes for CDs and digital music, and throwing out analog televisions and rabbit ear antennae for digital TV and broadband-delivered video-on-demand. Things change, and phone service is no different.

Despite the overwhelming prevalence of IP traffic, phone companies must still operate an increasingly obsolete but costly circuit-switched POTS infrastructure alongside their IP networks. But is it wise to try to speed up the transition to an all-IP environment?

Since the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina and, most recently, Super Storm Sandy, the need for an interoperable national public safety communications system has been well-known. Last February, Congress took the important step of committing funds and spectrum and resources to this goal. Yet the political capital expended will be wasted, and public safety potentially compromised, unless there is greater cooperation among state officials, federal agencies and commercial telecommunications firms.

Enterprise IT managers cite cloud computing as among their most important initiatives this year. Nearly two-thirds of them have already begun transitioning their business-critical applications to the cloud. Where does Carrier Ethernet fit in this equation?

The failure of commercial cellular carrier networks that was evident during Hurricane Sandy clearly indicates the imminent need for a dedicated private public safety LTE network in the U.S.