To get real value for money from your communications
infrastructure, you've got to understand exactly what the suppliers
are saying. Jane Dudman spells out what the jargon means in her
A-to-Z guide to telecoms technologies
IT directors are now facing a multitude of complex choices about
implementing the most effective communications strategies for their
organisations. If you are unfamiliar with jargon, it puts you at a
disadvantage. So what does it mean?
Application service providers (ASPs) offer a way out of
hiring expensive skilled telecoms staff and investing large amounts
in upgrading capital equipment. This is by piping in specific
applications direct to users' desktops, via the Internet or over
leased lines. The ASP market is settling down, but companies are
seeing the benefits of paying a flat monthly fee for applications
such as e-mail. Telford-based law firm Martin Kaye runs its e-mail,
administrative and legal systems via a local ASP hub, for less
money than it spent on in-house systems. The key issues are
security and reliability. Small businesses are finding benefits
from moving to ASP services. The range of applications available
continues to grow, although some industry-watchers are warning of a
shake-out as suppliers tackle challenges of changing existing
business models.
Billing systems can be a headache. Having to wade through
different bills on different tariffs, for fixed-line voice and data
services, mobile phones and Web hosting services, makes it hard to
compare and manage costs effectively particularly when telecoms
operators bundle services and charges together. Some suppliers
offer integrated billing, but the market has to make life simpler
for IT managers wanting clearer information on telecoms spend.
Cyber crime is on the increase. Credit card fraud,
hackers and data espionage are threats to every organisation, as
the hacking incident at Microsoft demonstrates. Counter-measures
include setting up a Global Forum of Law Enforcement and National
Security. Its president is former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
and chairman former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown.
Dial-up access to the Internet is still with us, despite
ISDN and the long-awaited promise of always-on, high-speed access
systems. Speeds have increased and are pushed further by cable
modems as alternatives to ADSL (see box on p108). But dial-up
connections are slow and holding up the UK's move into e-commerce,
according to the European Union. It says the UK has relegated
itself in European telecoms terms. According to cable modem
supplier Telewest, UK businesses could waste £7bn a year on slow
dial-up connections.
Electronic interfaces are necessary to facilitate the
exchange of business documents between supply chain partners. The
problem is which standard to pick. XML is now the de facto core
standard, but there is already a huge range of XML-based standards
for specific industries, such as FIXML in financial services, and
competing proprietary technologies such as Microsoft's Biztalk
server.
Flat-rate tariffs, US-style, provide unmetered access to
the Internet. They are currently some way off in the UK, following
the demise of services from AltaVista UK, LineOne and EZSurf as
operators continue to wrangle over tariff terms with BT under the
Friaco system (see box on p108). In October, AOL began rolling out
a limited flat-rate service. Other providers include RedHotAnt and
TFI-Excite.
Global numbering is one step away from the concepts of
unified messaging and personal numbers. Neither have yet caught on.
Now, with services like BT's Geoverse, a company can use the +88210
prefix and its customers won't know if it is based in London or
outer Mongolia.
Human Rights Act, which became law in England and Wales
last month and was already in place in Scotland, is giving network
managers a headache. Article 8 prevents organisations from
monitoring their employees' e-mail and phone calls. This
contradicts the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which says
companies must ensure communications are authorised.
Instant messaging is the hottest mobile phone application
around. Initially seen as fun, it could be an important complement
to e-mail in the workplace. It enables project teams and workers to
share notes and ideas in real time.
Java has become a ubiquitous technology in developing
e-business systems. Its success has created a major challenge for
IT directors, as it becomes difficult and expensive to find and
retain Java specialists.
Keysets used to be telephones with features like
call-holding and auto-dialling. Now, Internet protocol (IP)-based
keysets are being rolled out as the convergence of IP-based
networking with voice telephony. Features like voice mail sit on
the local area network, integrated with the telephone system rather
than on a central branch exchange.
Local loop unbundling is a political and technical hot
potato. It earns brickbats for the regulator Oftel (see page 84 and
p110). The watchdog's critics accuse it of not being tough on BT.
It is supposed to be opening the "last mile" of copper connections
into premises around the UK. It will bring faster, cheaper
broadband services to businesses of all sizes.
Mobile commerce is the logical step on from e-commerce,
where customers access online services via mobile phones.
Originally forecast to be huge, mobile commerce is suffering from
technical problems and a lack of enthusiasm for the wireless access
protocol (Wap). Look for the i-Mode standard from Japan, where
enthusiasm for m-commerce is high.
Nokia is the Finnish mobile phone company whose good
results pulled a lacklustre technology market out of the doldrums.
But even Nokia is having problems with Wap phones and has recalled
its 7110 Wap handset. Nokia, with Ericsson, is also a supporter of
Bluetooth radio-based technology, developed for several different
areas. This includes cable-less keyboards and file transfer,
automatic data synchronisation between PCs, mobile phones and
personal digital assistants.
Optical networks are coming on fast, from suppliers like
Harmoni, ONI and Storm Telecommunications. The latter recently
announced its Optical Gigabit Ethernet service. A selling point of
optical networks is that they are easy to scale up and down when
capacity needs changing.
Personal digital assistants are becoming serious as a
business tool, because they have greater functionality than Wap
phones. The biggest issue isn't access or speed, but how to
synchronise corporate data so it is automatically updated,
irrespective of device.
Quality relationship management is the new label for
customer relationship management. It is based on self-service
online Web sites, where customers report faults, pay bills etc.
Rich media communications is a name for the combination
of voice, data and video communications. Videoconferencing has been
a niche application, used for distance learning, tele-medicine and
corporate business meetings, but IP-based and broadband
videoconferencing could open up new possibilities, like adding live
video links to call centre operations. It will enable customers to
see the call centre agent or to see a bill or statement.
Symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) is a type of
DSL. As its name suggests, it provides equal bandwidth in both
directions, unlike ADSL (see box below). It runs over existing
copper lines and is suitable for small businesses and small offices
and teleworkers, allowing them to run high-speed voice and data
simultaneously.
Tracking traffic is vital in running online services
efficiently. But too few UK firms are collating and tracking data
properly, says e-business strategy consultant Visual Insight. It
says only 5% of businesses are monitoring Web sites'
performance.
Universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) is the
technology on which the third generation (3G) of European mobile
networks will be based. Due to start being rolled out next year,
UMTS provides wireless data speeds of up to 2 megabits per second.
The auction of 3G licences in the UK brought in billions for the
Treasury. This leads to questions over whether 3G service providers
will charge high prices to get back investment.
Voice over Internet protocol: using the internet to make
telephone calls and as a platform for services such as unified
messaging
Web to wireless systems, developed by suppliers such as
Nextron, provide businesses with the flexibility to notify their
customers, via Wap mobiles, of special Web site offers or
promotions.
Xmodem, Ymodem and Zmodem are the terms that reveal a
network manager's age. If you can recall wrestling with these early
PC file transfer protocols, it's best not to acknowledge it. But
these protocols are around today for the many businesses using
dial-up modems, usually disguised under application layers.
More telecoms terms explained
Assymmetric digital subscriber line: common
implementation of DSL with speeds up to 1.544 megabits per second
(mbps)
Broadband fixed wireless access: radio-based access
points providing alternative local access into high-speed network
services
Code division multiple access: dominant US standard for
wireless data with speeds up to 64 kilobits per second (kbps)
Dense wave division multiplexing: core optical networking
standard
Edge: system to run wireless data up to 384 kbps over
existing GSM networks
Flat-rate Internet access call origination (Friaco):
wholesale unmetered access rates from BT to other operators. It is
a first step in providing full, unmetered Internet access in the
UK
General packet radio service: available soon, it should
boost mobile data speeds to 115 kbps
High data rate: fast data over radio, developed by US
company Qualcomm with speeds up to 1.8 mbps
Infinniband: US-developed interconnect technology with
bandwidths to 2.5 gigabits per second (gbps); first products due
out late next year
Jini: Java-based network delivery system from Sun
Kilobits per second: the chrome scooter of networking.
Most business need megabits, if not gigabits per second
Local loop unbundling: pushing BT out from that last
half-mile of copper
Navigation: how to get Web users where they need to be,
quickly
Oftel: the UK telecommunications regulator. Toothless
tiger or consumer champion?
Profiling: gathering and collating information on
customer preferences to form an e-personality which are then
targeted with specific offers and services
Quality of service: ensures important traffic gets across
the network first
Reverse geocoding: know where your customer is? Now get
their full postal address
Scalable vector graphics: next step up in web
graphics
3G: third generation mobile networks
Universal description, discovery and integration:
initiative aimed at building a global registry of
business-to-business trading partners
wireless access protocol: data access standard for mobile
phones
XML: emerging standard for Web-based commerce
Zoomable: the close-up feature of geographic systems