BayPackets Inc., an application development company for telecom carriers and cable multi-service operators (MSOs), is on a global expansion drive and is making its debut in Asia with the launch of a trial network in China next week.
“Initially, the plan was to expand within the United States before moving globally,” said Brian Coulter, vice president of sales and business development. “However, due to the tech downturn, the telcos (in the U.S.) are still reluctant to spend.”
Instead, according to Coulter, the company has expanded into Europe by building trial networks for telecom carriers, and now, it is moving into Asia.
In Asia, it is targeting widely different markets that range from countries with highly developed telecommunication infrastructure like Singapore, Japan and Korea to countries with huge development potential like China and India.
BayPackets found that the Asian telcos are more aggressive in development and more willing to spend than in the U.S. For example, Asian telcos are aggressively developing voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technologies. In the U.S., in contrast, the telcos have huge, extensive infrastructures based on circuit switches. As such, it is in their interest to protect their investments from full depreciation. Hence, they are more reluctant to spend on new technologies, said Coulter.
For Asian telcos, which have fewer legacy considerations, a plus point is that these new technologies allow them to leapfrog the U.S. in telecommunication infrastructure. The Asian telcos are putting in next generation equipment that helps them bring down costs involved in installing traditional fixed lines. They are also buying next generation value enhanced services to support their new infrastructure. For example, there are already more mobile phones in China than U.S.. This creates a user base that is poised for new enhanced services, said Coulter.
According to BayPackets, the first installation in Asia will be in China, where the first trial network will be launched on 27 May this year. The company is also currently in discussion with various telcos in Singapore.
BayPackets’ flagship product is an application service layer, called the Rapid Service Introduction (RSI) system, which lies over VOIP.
It is a carrier-class product that allows voice carriers to let their customers directly set the features they want from services such as voice VPNs (virtual private networks), advanced 1800 service and unified messaging. The platform is akin to the service control point (SCP) that exists in legacy circuit switching networks. The applications created can perform all the functions of SCP while able to achieve more functionality such as integrated messaging. The RSI system can support both circuit switched and packet switched networks. The RSI system runs on Sun Solaris workstations and can coordinate services among circuit-switched, IP and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks.