International Telecoms Week is here.  After weeks of preparation, people from BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM) are attending the world’s largest conference for the wholesale service-provider industry.

With people still registering, the 2013 numbers aren’t in yet.  In 2012 more than 5,300 delegates attended from more than 1,700 companies and more than 140 countries.

Among the fourteen GTM people attending this year are Beatriz Butsana-Sita, managing director of GTM, and Andrew Dodsworth, chief operating officer and director of voice.  Two more delegates represent BT Wholesale.

Their busy schedule includes mostly business meetings with their customers gathered in Chicago from around the world.  Hot topics on the agenda cover the BT Global IP Exchange, managed services, and white-labelling for enterprise customers, among others.

Plus Roel Louwhoff, CEO of BT Operate & Global Sports Technology, will deliver a case study of the BT contribution to London 2012.  His presentation will open the panel session “Lessons from London: Rio 2016 and FIFA 2014 – Data needs for a global event”.

For more information about BT at ITW, contact Marti Demetrion, senior marketing manager.

Former US Vice President Al Gore opened this year’s International Telecoms Week with a very positive message about telecoms today.

According to Mr. Gore, the number of members of the middle class worldwide will grow from 2bn today to 4bn over the next 12 years.  The growth of the middle class drives the growth of business, so we should feel optimistic about our future markets.

Innovation lies at the heart of our industry, he continued, and several laws about technology growth give us more reasons for optimism:

        Moore’s Law, the best known, says computing power doubles every 18 months.

        As Mr. Gore put it, Kryder’s Law states that digital storage capacity doubles every 18 months.

        Metcalfe’s Law says the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system.

According to his new book The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, one of these drivers is the Global Mind.  It links the thoughts and feelings of billions of people and connects intelligent machines, robots, sensors, and databases.

 “You are in charge of connecting the neurons of the Global Mind,” said Mr. Gore.

He concluded his remarks by saying, when business historians look back on the early 21^st century, they will see the wholesale telecoms industry as one of its great success stories.

An inspiring message to kick off three days of meetings and presentations that will develop and secure relationships and future business.

Where we’re going

If you would like to make an appointment to meet our speaker and delegates at any of these conferences, you are welcome to contact us.

Andean Telco Summit, 8-9 May 2013, Bogotá
Faisal Mahomed, head of Latin America & the Caribbean, BT Advise for Communications, and Miguel Gonzalez Aparicio, senior sales professional, will attend to meet customers and make new contacts.  To request an appointment, please contact us.

International Telecoms Week (ITW), 13-15 May 2013, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Roel Louwhoff, CEO of BT Operate, will present a case study of the BT contribution to London 2012 and then join the panel “Lessons from London: Rio 2016 and FIFA 2014 – Data needs for a global event”.

Senior members of the BT GTM team will attend to meet customers and make new contacts:

• Beatriz Butsana-Sita, managing director of GTM
• Andrew Dodsworth, chief operating officer
• Joe Alvarez, business manager, GTM Voice
• Manuel Arias Perez, head of GTM Iberia, Latin America & Caribbean
• Parminder Atkar, business manager, GTM Voice
• Mike Bygate, business development manager, GTM Voice
• Rodrigo Donazzolo, head of IP Interoperability, Asia Pacific
• Colin Dougan, head of GTM Voice Business Management
• Franklin Ferrer, account director – carriers
• Paul Fuertsch, account director
• Jonathan Key, head of Managed Voice Business Development
• Ron Rosas, account director, GTM US & Canada
• Claudia Vegni, senior sales manager, GTM Voice
• Carsten Wessel, head of Sales Germany, Austria, Switzerland (DACH) & Nordics
• Marti Demetrion, manager of GTM conference programme and external communications, and editor of GTM customer ezine

Senior members of the BT Wholesale team will join them:

• Clive Goodwin, director, fixed networks
• Lee Hollis, general manager, international voice & interoperability

To request an appointment, please contact us.

Forum of Telecom Operators of Small States, 16-17 May 2013, Faroe Islands
Terry Francis, consultant, BT Advise for Communications, will present “The BT transformation story and what it means for smaller operators”.

East Africa Com, 21-22 May 2013, Nairobi, Kenya
Aubrey Moore, account director, GTM, will attend with Chris Wray, managing consultant, BT Advise for Communications. To request an appointment, please contact us.

SatCom Africa and Submarine Networks Africa, 27-30 May 2013, Johannesburg, South Africa
Aubrey Moore, account director, GTM, Ryan Minnaar, sales manager at GTM, will attend Chris Wray, managing consultant, BT Advise for Communicationswill attend. To request an appointment, please contact us.

World Economic Forum on the Middle East & North Africa, 24-26 May 2013, Dead Sea, Jordan
Beatriz Butsana-Sita, managing director of GTM, will attend.  To request an appointment, please contact us.

The Convergence Summit, 3-4 June 2013, Amman, Jordan
Mabs Khan, regional director for GTM Middle East & Africa , and Paul Loveridge, account director, GTM Middle East, plan to attend. To request an appointment, please contact us.

WBA Wi-Fi Global Congress, 11-14 June 2013, London
BT is the host operator.  Watch this page for more information coming soon. To request an appointment, please contact us.

Global Carrier Community Meeting, 17 June 2013, Singapore
Kenneth Soon and Nazleen Rahmatullah, voice business managers at GTM will attend. To request an appointment, please contact us.

CDN World Forum, 26-27 June 2013, London
Gary Wellburn, business director of GTM Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Matt Jackson, senior proposition manager, GTM, plan to attend.  To request an appointment, please contact us.

Capacity CEE, 27-28 June 2013, Prague
Senior members of the BT GTM team will attend.  To request an appointment, please contact us.

Asian Carriers Conference, 3-6 September 2013, Cebu, Philippines
Senior members of the BT GTM team will attend.  To request an appointment, please contact us.

Carriers World Middle East, 30 September – 2 October 2013, Dubai
Beatriz Butsana-Sita, managing director of GTM, will present “How will IP innovation transform the wholesale carrier business?”  To request an appointment, please contact us.

Again, if you would like to make an appointment to meet our speaker at any of these conferences, we invite you to contact us.

Where we’ve been

Capacity Middle East, 4-6 March 2013, Dubai
Colin Dougan, head of voice business management – GTM international sales; Paul Loveridge, account director, GTM Middle East; and, Ben Edwards, general manager IDD Sales UK, BT Wholesale, attended.

SAMENA Beyond Connectivity, 6-7 March 2013, Istanbul
Mabs Khan, regional director for GTM Middle East & Africa, and Beste Ucak, regional sales manager for GTM Eastern Mediterranean, attended to meet customers and make new contacts.

Americas Wholesale Congress, 11-12 March 2013, Miami, Florida, USA
Joselito Diz, head of GTM Latin America & the Caribbean, and Roberto Crotti, senior sales professional, attended to meet customers and make new contacts.

Small Cells Asia, 18-19 March 2013, Seoul, Korea
Won Kim, managing consultant, BT Advise for Communications Asia Pacific, spoke on the panel “Driving WiFi and Small Cell convergence – Where are we now?”

Global Carrier Community Meeting, 19 March 2013, London
Mike Bygate, business development manager, BT Global IP Exchange, GTM, will present “Innovation and the future of wholesale”. To request an appointment, please contact us.

Capacity Latam, 19-20 March 2013, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Manuel Arias, head of GTM Iberia, Latin America & the Caribbean, joined the panel “Adapting for success in Latin American wholesale”. Joselito Diz, head of GTM Latin America & the Caribbean, attended with him.

Carriers World Asia, 25-27 March 2013, Bangkok, Thailand
Rodrigo Donazzolo, head of IP Interoperability, BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM) Asia Pacific, spoke on the panel “Monetising voice revenues and expanding into new markets through strategic voice trading and roaming agreements”.

Capacity Balkans, 8-9 April 2013, Bucharest, Romania
Dusan Hazucha, voice business manager, and David Burtscher, account manager, attended.  Both support customers in CEE, Russia and CIS.

West Africa Connect, 16-17 April 2013, Dakar, Senegal
Andrew Dodsworth, chief operating officer of GTM, joined the panel “Building successful regional and international partnerships: Facilitating market growth through effective cooperation”.  Ian Varnes, voice business manager, Middle East and Africa, attended with him.

Caspian Telecoms Conference & Showcase, 18-19 April 2013, Istanbul
Dusan Hazucha, voice business manager, GTM CEE, Russia and CIS, attended.

Transport Networks for Mobile Operators, 23-25 April 2013, London
Steve Dyett, head of portfolio development for the GTM global Wi-Fi portfolio, attended.

Mobile Backhaul Asia, 25-26 April 2013, Bangkok
Pete Challand, lead consultant, BT Advise for Communications Asia Pacific, joine the panel “Exploring new technology options for next generation broadband deployments”.

African Global Business Forum, 1-2 May 2013, Dubai
Rehan Khan, regional director, BT Global Telecom Markets North & West Africa, attended to meet customers and make new contacts.

For more information about the participation of BT Global Telecom Markets in industry conferences, please contact the editor of “Let’s Talk GTM”.

DC13-129                           29 April, 2013

BT has signed a new ten year deal with Telefonica UK to support the introduction of 4G services for millions of O2 mobile customers.

Under the terms of the deal, BT will build a new high capacity transmission network to help O2 stay ahead of the continued explosion in mobile data traffic as a result of mobile users accessing mobile internet applications via their smartphone or tablet device. The roll out of 4G services across the UK is expected to place even greater pressure on mobile networks. The new managed network solution from BT Wholesale will provide O2 with the network capacity required to support the increasing demands of customers choosing its planned 4G services.

BT will also provide O2 with a sizeable increase in backhaul capacity by delivering the high speed mobile backhaul links between its mobile base stations and the new transmission network. Furthermore, the new transmission network will help O2 migrate from legacy TDM to Ethernet based IP services, helping O2 deliver a host of new applications to its customers whilst reducing its overall transmission costs.

Adrian Di Meo, Chief Technology Officer, O2 UK, said: “With the UK’s 4G spectrum auction complete, UK mobile data traffic is set to grow by more than 400 per cent by 2016 ¹. This is a huge opportunity for us, as well as a technical challenge. But through our partnership with BT Wholesale, customers of O2 will be backed by a high-performance mobile internet network which we believe will release the potential of 4G services and result in unrivalled mobile phone and internet browsing experiences.”

Chet Patel, Managing Director, BT Wholesale Markets, said: “Our network solution will help O2 to deliver a next generation mobile experience to their customers to fully exploit the exciting possibilities of 4G technologies. We are moving quickly to get O2 up and running.”

Ends

¹ Source: IHS report, January 2013

DC13-131             April 29, 2013

BT is accelerating its push into cloud computing all round the world by launching BT Cloud Compute, an enhanced service that allows CIOs far greater control in terms of designing, building, buying and operating a cloud solution that is tailored to their specific needs.

CIOs can keep pace with the changing demands of their customers and confidently build powerful ‘pay as you go’ cloud solutions that they can use from anywhere in the world with consistent levels of quality, security and service from BT.

From the boom economies of Latin America and the financial hubs of Europe to the huge developing markets of Asia and the fast-moving retail sectors of the US, BT’s smartest, fastest customers are transforming their businesses by creating or changing their service in response to new demands. BT research has shown that customers using BT Cloud Compute make an average saving of 40 per cent against traditional ways of working. By using BT’s advanced Cloud orchestration of infrastructure, network, applications and services, customers can align costs directly to their business needs.

With services hosted in more than 45 datacentres around the globe and managed by customers through a self-service dashboard, BT Cloud Compute is designed to help CIOs meet their stringent compliance requirements and local law and regulatory obligations by letting them decide exactly where they want their sensitive data to be hosted. Its cloud infrastructure uses industry standard secure data centres located in Brazil, Colombia, US, UK, Spain, Benelux, France, Italy, Singapore and Hong Kong and will soon be in Germany, China, India, Argentina and Mexico.

Amy DeCarlo, Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services at Current Analysis, said: “In the cloud services marketplace, BT is very strong in comparison to other global enterprise IT services providers, because the company has made good on its promise to offer services out of Europe, the Americas and APAC. BT has also constructed a pragmatic ‘build it and they come’ approach for investment in data centre and cloud services that complements its strong and growing global network infrastructure.”

BT Cloud Compute is already allowing life sciences companies to collaborate globally on crucial research and development projects to improve their speed to market. A leading international law firm is using BT Cloud Compute with web-based information sharing tools to provide clients with fast access to legal and market know-how across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. One of BT’s most creative not-for-profit customers is using BT Cloud Compute to raise money across Spain and Latin America via web, mobile and social media apps. Those customers are safe in the knowledge that they are using the same solutions that underpinned London 2012, the most connected Games ever.

BT Cloud Compute was developed at BT’s research centre in Adastral Park, England in collaboration with some of our key world-leading industry partners. It differentiates itself from run-of-the-mill cloud offerings by being self-healing and resilient, bringing customers an expected service level of 99.95%. It also gives customers the ability to combine their own data centres and private clouds with BT’s global cloud capabilities, providing real flexibility – the best choice of solutions to suit customers changing IT needs. Automated delivery lets customers launch new services quickly and efficiently, with high levels of choice, flexibility and control.

Neil Sutton, Vice President, Global Portfolio, BT Global Services, said: “As a company, we are serious about Cloud. We invest millions every year to regularly refresh, update and evolve our datacentre infrastructure and our service to our customers. Cloud is about more than technology; it’s about the service and the possibilities it can enable locally and globally in a reliable, trusted and assured way, helping CIOs find answers to the unique questions their market and regulations demand.

“BT Cloud Compute’s flexibility can be crucial as many companies expand into new regions and markets, or find that their needs change quickly – a local service but in a globally consistent manner. BT Cloud Compute’s self-service dashboard gives them the power to constantly monitor and manage their usage and spending, in a similar way to household smart meters that give residential customers better visibility and control over their energy usage.”

ENDS

Awards won by BT for its Cloud offering:

• 2011 Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award for Cloud Services;
• Winner of the Best Project in Iaas category at Computerwoche’s Best in Cloud 2011
• BT was ranked the third largest provider of cloud infrastructure services in the world by industry analyst Synergy Research Group.
• BT was recognized as a leading cloud supplier in Germany in multiple categories by the analysts of Experton Group in their “Cloud Vendor Benchmark” report for 2012 and 2013.

Cloud Compute key features

• Service availability: 99.95 per cent, dynamic provisioning, 24/7 with local service desks
• Delivered from Tier 3 or better data centres
• Access options: Portal, multi-lingual and multi-currency, open API, role-based access
• Architecture: Multi-availability zones across public and private resources
• Security: Role-based access, virtual security appliance, port forwarding
• Integration: Active directory and LDAP supported
• Network: Load balanced, multi VLAN, WAN connectivity available, virtual routing
• Commercial: Flexible pricing per hour, per month, or per annum
• OS supported: Microsoft, Linux, customer generated templates, ISO images
• Hypervisors supported: VMware, Citrix

DC13-119            24 April 2013

BT’s cloud solutions ranked at top in the German “Cloud Vendor Benchmark” report for third year in a row

BT announced that it has again been recognized as a leading cloud supplier in Germany by the analysts of Experton Group in their latest “Cloud Vendor Benchmark 2013” report. BT’s cloud computing solutions were rated as “leaders” in the “Managed Cloud”, “Managed Private Cloud”, “Cloud Services for mid-size companies”, and “Cloud Transformation” categories.

According to Experton, “leaders” have a broad portfolio of highly attractive products and services as well as a strong competitive and market position. In addition, they offer their customers long-term stability through their commitment to cloud services in their strategy and product development.
BT gained top positions especially in those categories that surveyed cloud solutions for large corporations doing business in Germany. Aspects like resilience, global availability and data protection play a pivotal role in this segment.

According to the Experton analysts, BT has “further improved its position in terms of attractiveness of the portfolio and competitive strength” over the last twelve months. The assessment is based on recent developments, including the opening of BT’s new data centre in Frankfurt in 2012 and the coming launch of the new “BT Cloud Compute” service that will offer an ITILv3 compliant service with 99.95 per cent availability out of local data centres. Another strength highlighted by Experton is BT’s ability to combine network services with IT infrastructure services such as computing power and storage.

“I am delighted that we are rated as a ‘leader’ for the third time in a row and that we have further improved our position in important categories,” said Nina Wegner, CEO of BT Germany. “The results confirm that our investments and continuous improvements of the portfolio are paying off. Cloud is about more than technology; it’s about the reliable, trusted, assured service we offer, helping CIOs fully address opportunities on the German market, while remaining compliant with regulatory requirements. Customers appreciate in particular BT’s combination of global reach and local presence.”

The “Cloud Vendor Benchmark 2013” report is a comprehensive study published by the Experton Group AG pertaining to products and services of leading cloud computing providers in Germany. It rates and ranks the leading providers in a transparent process to help IT decision-makers in evaluating and selecting the solutions best tailored to their needs.

Additional information regarding the study can be found at www.experton-group.de

Innovation: Confidence: Leadership

Are you going to International Telecoms Week 13-15 May in Chicago?

If so, this is for you:

You may have seen the invitation from Capacity Media to attend the exclusive VIP panel revealing the results of the C100 survey, taking place Monday 13 May 2013 at 1.00pm.

This panel will unveil the results of Capacity’s survey of the elite leadership in the global wholesale market.

In the first survey of its kind, which included BT and many others, this elite network of individuals shares insights into the health of the wholesale market place, priorities for innovation, and their own leadership.

Limited places available, you must RSVP to attend. 

Secure your seat today – RSVP HERE

Panel Moderator

Mike Lipkin, Founder & CEO Environics/Lipkin
THE MOTIVATION COMPANY

Panellists

Alexandre Pébereau, Executive Vice President, International Carriers
ORANGE & Chairman, ITW Founders’ Council

Willem Offerhaus, President and CEO
IBASIS

 Michel Guyot, President, Global Voice Solutions
TATA COMMUNICATIONS

The results will be announced in Regency Ballroom A on the Gold Level of the West Tower at 1pm.  Networking coffee will be provided from 12.30pm.  For more information, please visit the C100 web page here.

BT Diamond IP is pleased to offer a series of free webinars on various IP address management (IPAM) related topics including IPv6, DNSSEC and IDNA, among others. This webinar series is intended to provide a series of educational sessions to help you learn about how to harness the power of these complex technologies in your network. Feel free to select and register for the webinars in which you’re interested. And each session will be recorded so if you are unable to attend a webinar, the corresponding recording will be posted on the BT Diamond IP website within a few days after the scheduled event.

Our next webinar in the series is scheduled for April 24 at 9 am EDT. The topic is “IPv6 Deployment Framework.” This webinar will provide an overview of the IPv6 deployment process. Register today!

This webinar will cover the following topics:

• IPv6 deployment drivers
• IPv6 assessment tactics
• IPv6 planning
• Deployment testing and turn-up
• Post deployment management

Webinar attendees and registrants for each session will also be eligible for a random drawing for a free IPv6 book, IPv6 Deployment and Management, by BT Diamond IP experts Michael Dooley and Tim Rooney, to be published in early May.

Register today!

Recently when we sent the 40^th issue of the GTM customer ezine to you, our customers and friends, we celebrated ten years of continuous production and success. Our idea was and is to provide regular communication with as many of you as possible and to keep you up to date on our strategy, news and propositions. 

Managing editor Marti Demetrion of GTM marketing still has the first issue – and all the ones since – in her email files.  Unfortunately, Outlook doesn’t know how to do anything but store a ten-year-old message so she can’t get it out and share it.   She did manage to read it, and to get an image of an early issue so you can see what it looked like.

Chris Clarke, president of Wholesale Business, BT Global Services – as GTM was known then – welcomed readers.  Issue 1 carried three other articles: 

• BT voted European Data Services Provider leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant
• BT Private Line Services Evolve to Meet Customer Needs
• Events Around the Globe, the predecessor of BT events

Originally published in one version for everyone, the ezine now goes out in six regional editions: Asia Pacific, Europe, International Focus (Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern Europe), Middle East & Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, and North America.

The head of GTM has always written a column, beginning with Chris Clark, then Karsten Lereuth, Oscar Ruiz and Beatriz Butsana-Sita.

The platform, name and masthead banner have changed three times.  After BT Wholesale News came Global Telecom News and now Let’s Talk GTM.

Chris wrote in his introduction to Issue 1, “I hope that it will provide you with a regular and easy-to-digest opportunity to see useful news and information about our activities and offerings.”

Essentially that’s what we still try to offer, with more and richer content and more attention to personalities.

Through all the changes, another constant has been Marti, head writer and editor since the beginning.  So if you want to receive the GTM ezine or have an idea for an article you’d like to see, please contact Marti.

By Chris Bruce
Director of international sales and consulting services
BT Global Telecom Markets
Co-chair, Wireless Broadband Alliance

Mobile World Congress 2013 (MWC) in Barcelona showed that 4G is a reality in many markets.  In fact, the UK licence auction concluded during the event this year.

Chris Bruce speaking at Mobile World Congress about the future of international data roaming between 3G / LTE and Wi-Fi – seamless and secure – as easy as roaming with a cellular phone.

Another reality is the difficulty of making the investment needed to acquire licensed spectrum and build 4G networks at a time when user data consumption grows exponentially while revenues grow modestly or even decline.  This is encouraging operators to think again about the use of licensed and unlicensed spectrum and various technologies. For more on this subject, see my article “Wi-Fi offload’ is so last year – now it’s all about ‘onload’!”

You may also be interested in a video interview at MWC by Brian Dolby, managing director of BCS Public Relations, for the GTB Wipro TV Special. Brian interviewed Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO of Telus, one of the three largest mobile operators in Canada, and me. Our discussion about the importance of wireless standards and interworking between new technologies turned into a friendly debate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In a first for the Mobile World Congress, the GSMA featured the Wi-Fi Zone, a pavilion where the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) showcased its work to promote a specification for Wi-Fi to 3G/LTE roaming.  Features of the standard include seamless and secure access methods with user credentials stored on SIM cards, certificates or apps.

As China Mobile, KT and NTT Docomo demonstrated on their joint exhibition booth, operators are now taking advantage of this specification to improve international data roaming.  Others like Telefonica and Orange showed how to use the same techniques, with Wi-Fi as a complement to their 3G and LTE networks, to optimise user experience and reduce network costs.

Other vendors showed how the bonding of backhaul across Wi-Fi and LTE bearers can maximise performance and create a truly optimised user experience.

Elsewhere, the interest of operators turned to functional questions like how to optimise networks and operational performance.  These are areas where BT Advise for Communications delivers practical consultancy with real business deliverables from seasoned practitioners.

Hardware vendors demonstrated small cell technologies and combination of licensed and unlicensed technologies in a single radio device for internal and external applications.  Some of them, and device vendors, too (as you’d expect) showed off their products on huge exhibition stands.  Apps were to the fore and Firefox had a particularly strong visual presence.

To address a key Congress theme “Connecting the next billion people”, vendors launched cheap mobile devices offering some smart-phone capabilities for less than €80.  In the view of analysts, most of the next billion customers will live and work in Africa and India.  This means they are likely to come from rural areas and lack the disposable income for expensive mobile devices.

BT is an active member of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA); in fact, I’m the co-chair.  The WBA works closely with both the GSMA and the Wi-Fi Alliance to develop specifications for seamless and secure interoperability and roaming between Wi-Fi and macro-cell networks.  The Next Generation Hotspots programme is supported by BT and other leading operators (AT&T, Orange, KT, China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo) and technology partners (Intel, Cisco).

For more information about international roaming and what BT is doing with Wi-Fi consultancy and advice, please contact us at BT.

Biography:

Chris Bruce
Director of international sales and consulting services
BT Global Telecom Markets
Co-chair, Wireless Broadband Alliance

In BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM), Chris is responsible for consultancy to telcos globally and for international sales to service providers outside of Europe.  He is also co-chair of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, a group of leading operators and technology partners driving the next generation of Wi-Fi experience.

Until recently Chris was CEO of BT Openzone, provider of the BT public Wi-Fi service, where he led the deployment of more than 4 million Wi-Fi hotspots.  He also developed partnerships with mobile operators for offload services and with venue partners in the hospitality and travel sectors.

Chris has more than 25 years of international experience in the telecommunications industry in a range of general management, product, marketing and sales channel roles. With BT since 1991, he has been responsible for business growth in the international data communications, mobile, internet hosting, global voice and wireless broadband sectors.

By Mike Bygate
Head of business development
EMEA, Latin America & the Caribbean, North America & Southern Europe
BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM)

Times are already challenging for network operators, retail and wholesale, doing their best to serve their customers.  Even more challenges lie ahead. One example is Cloud, or Big Data, putting converged networks at the heart of communications and putting huge traffic volumes on them.

Already a reality, these volumes will continue their massive growth. The obvious solution would be to build big new networks, deploying new technology that offers scalability, flexibility and lower operational costs. But that would mean big investment in a time of limited capital.

So what’s an operator to do to prosper, or indeed survive?

The answers lie in innovation with vision for the medium and long term, strategy for growth, quick routes to market for new applications and services, and effective partnerships with vendors and customers -  all supported by the means to interwork across various technologies.

That’s a tall order.

At BT we believe the way to fulfil it is a global IP exchange (GIPX) platform that embraces different technologies and adapts to evolving customer requirements and operator roadmaps.

Global IP exchange

The GIPX enables true interoperability.  With it come opportunities to maximise cost efficiencies, defend current business and grow through innovation that creates new IP-based services.

Both fixed and mobile operators now see GIPX as a way to effectively interconnect their networks to deliver interworking for end-to-end services across multiple networks.

A pioneer in this area, BT already links more than 300 operators (and rising) around the world on our Global IP Exchange platform.  With it we provide interoperability, support our service-provider customers through the migration of their voice business to IP, and combine voice with data so they can create new value-added services.

The growing number of customers on our platform led us to launch our first IP Exchange node outside the UK last October in Singapore. Now we’re planning more of these nodes in other regions where we see demand for IP interoperability. We plan to deploy the next one in Miami in summer 2013 to complement our footprints for Europe via our UK node and Asia via Singapore.

We already offer high-definition voice on the IP Exchange and we plan other enhancements like video-calling, Sigtran, LTE/4G roaming, transit, international toll-free services and direct inward dialing.

That’s how BT is innovating in the wholesale IP space.  What does that mean for service providers?

New services are emerging on their own networks and on the internet (over-the-top or OTT) that have the potential to generate new revenue ― if they can be extended across network borders to become national or international services.

However, they are now available only on network “islands”, with little interworking between different providers’ services and between managed networks and OTT internet applications.

The BT Global IP Exchange can enable true interworking.  Plus BT can offer white-labelled services and help for service providers to create innovative consumer services and enterprise portfolios.

For example, the IP Exchange enables high-definition voice, providing a high-quality calling experience across networks so end customers benefit from seamless availability. This adds real value by helping operators retain premium customers to keep ARPU and margin up.

They all position BT as a strong partner for new services.

In summary, service providers face tough challenges, not just in the network. But within those challenges lie opportunities. Through interoperability, service providers can innovate to create new services that their customers will be happy to buy.

Why not work with BT to seize the opportunities?

This article is based on Mike Bygate’s presentation for the Annual London 2013 Global Carrier Community Meeting (GCCM) on 19 March. Mike is a guest speaker to the conference organised by the Carrier Community, the Global Wholesale Carrier Club with 2500+ carrier executive members representing 1200+ wholesale carriers in 120+ countries. For more please visit: www.carriercommunity.com and its events page.

Biography:

Mike Bygate
Head of business development
EMEA, Latin America & the Caribbean, North America & Southern Europe
BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM)

Mike has 27 years experience in international carrier telecoms, especially with the commercial, product and technical aspects of voice services.

As head of business development for EMEA, Latin America & the Caribbean, North America & Southern Europe in BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM), Mike is responsible for creating and delivering customer-specific solutions based on the BT IP Interoperability portfolio, and for enhancing that portfolio for the future.

In his previous role as operational lead for the development and roll-out of BT services to new customers, he gained an in-depth background of IP Exchange services and their strategic setting.

Mike has a BSc (Hons) in maths and geography from Manchester Metropolitan University.  In his spare time, besides golf, yoga, rounders, swimming and judo, Mike enjoys fund-raising and supporting a local charity for disabled adults and children.

By Dr. Jens Specht
Head of business development
BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM)
Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA)

Here at BT we have successfully introduced our Global IP Exchange Service but we’re not stopping there: we’re now working to enhance its value to our customers by adding new services and growing our community.

In the world of IP voice, size matters! To use a well-known industry example, one fax machine doesn’t make a service.  You need millions to do it. The time of fax is coming to an end, but the rule applies to providing a voice-over-IP service that is more than just another transport technology. We need to create and support a big community of IP-voice users.

Only with a critical mass of end-to-end IP routes can new IP-based services take off. Take high-definition voice: it only works if enough people have access to the service.

Having connected more than 300 customers around the world and in the UK, BT wants to use internal resources to help its IP-voice community grow. These resources include a number of local IP-voice platforms that create IP services but are often trans-coded to terminate into TDM.

So we’ve started to connect those local platforms to our IP Exchange, beginning with the interconnect to the German platform. Next on the roadmap, in various stages of implementation, are the BT IP-voice platforms in Italy, Spain, Ireland, Brazil and Argentina.

Together with our IPX PoPs in the UK, Singapore and (soon) Miami, they are increasing the reach, availability and sheer size of the IP-voice community enabled by the BT IP Exchange.

As a supplier to the Exchange, you get instant access to an even bigger pool of high-quality IP-voice minutes.

As a customer on it, you get access to more direct IP destinations and the ability to connect to a sustainable, growing and improving IPX platform.

As a customer on those local IP-voice platforms, you get immediate access to more direct IP routes and a larger variety of suppliers to deliver the best service for your money.

If you haven’t already joined the BT IP-voice community, aren’t these good reasons to do it now?

For more information or to connect to the BT Global IP Exchange, please contact your BT account team.

Biography:

As head of business development for EMEA in BT Global Telecom Markets, Jens Specht is responsible for creating and delivering customer-specific solutions based on the BT IP Interoperability portfolio, and for enhancing that portfolio for the future.  In his previous role of operational lead on the development and roll-out of BT IP Interoperability, he gained an in-depth background of IP Exchange services and their strategic setting.

In his ten years with BT Jens has held several international marketing, strategy and portfolio development positions in BT Global Services. Before joining BT he was head of the office of the chief executive in a major German media group (KirchGruppe), and scientist with the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Jens holds degrees in physics and economics and a PhD in environmental science.

DC13-066                                                                              06 March 2013

With BT Ethernet Connect, multinational organisations benefit from higher performance and improved security for cloud services and for traffic between their sites in Brazil and Mexico

BT launched Ethernet Connect in Brazil and Mexico, bringing cost effective high bandwidth network services, improved application performance and optimized delivery of cloud services to public and private organizations expanding in those countries.

Ethernet Connect is BT’s family of Ethernet VPN services, which allows for combining different types of connection to build the best possible network for each organisation. BT Ethernet Connect services currently cover more than 40 countries around the world and are expected to reach over 50 countries by the end of this year, including Chile, Colombia and Argentina.

Ethernet Connect helps customers maximise performance and flexibility across their infrastructure. The customer selects the access speeds he requires and chooses the most appropriate level of support. With Ethernet Connect’s adaptive building blocks, every organisation is then able to set up the ideal system to meet its requirements, adding more features when needed. BT Ethernet Connect services can scale up and down, remaining cost-effective since the customer only pays for the used capacity. And the client stays in control, managing service orders through a safe online portal.

BT Ethernet Connect comprises two elements:

• Etherway access over copper or fibre, connecting the customer site to the network point of presence with a range of resilience options;
• Ethernet Virtual Connection (EVC), which is end to end services between customer sites, allowing for choices of service types, speeds and classes of service for each virtual connection. With BT Ethernet Connect organisations have the flexibility to create different networks and combine them to build the network they want. Services can be configured as:o Ethernet Private Lines – point-to-point private circuits
  o Ethernet Virtual Private Lines – hub and spoke and mesh networks
  o E-Lan (Virtual Private LAN Services) – any to any connections

“We believe that BT Ethernet Connect services will help national and multinational organisations in Brazil and Mexico to boost efficiency and productivity”, said Jacinto Cavestany, vice president Iberia & Latin America, BT Global Services. “Our domestic market shows an increasing appetite for secure bandwidth and connections in order to respond to the requirements of cloud services and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies. There is also a growing demand to respond to new networking challenges such as the exploding pressures on local area and wide area networks to handle big data workloads. In the 21st century, Ethernet and IP (Internet Protocol) coexist in corporate networks, complementing each other to meet different requirements, with services delivered through a single global MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) platform”.

Guten Tag, everyone, hello!

I write to you today after some very exciting months for BT Global Telecoms Markets in Germany and a well-deserved break over the festive season. I hope you enjoyed one, too.

We hosted many of you again for our traditional, annual Reseller event in Munich just a few months back at the Oktoberfest. As always, it was a great opportunity for my team and me to meet you and talk about where we’re all going and how we can continue to support you.

We had more than 80 customers joining from all parts of Germany and CEE.  Obviously, we plan to keep this event in our calendar for 2013:  The feedback we get from you on both the business and the Oktoberfest parts of the programme is simply awesome.

I’d like to share with you some topics that are currently on our roadmap and agenda. In Germany we’re working on some very interesting projects to develop our position in data services.

We’ve officially launched our new data centre in Frankfurt, where we provide you with Telehousing capacity and BT Managed Datacentre Services. We’ve already hosted several customer meetings and the feedback we get is excellent. For more information about the data centre and the services, get in touch with your local account manager, who will be happy to help you.

Our Diamond IP offer responds to a trend, the increasingly urgent need for organisations to replace IPv4 with IPv6 on their networks.  Any organisation running an IP network and IP-address ranges will require IP-address management.  BT offers you a perfect-fit solution: we can manage both your IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in one network.

Consider the benefits, like being able to refresh your current infrastructure, deploy new applications, and reduce the risk of systems failure for your mission-critical business. And of course, continuing to run your network after IPv4 addresses run out. Some very large customer organizations already rely on BT Diamond IP.

To read more about Diamond IP solutions look at our website and this article in Let’s Talk GTM: BT Diamond IP offers solutions for assessing and deploying IPv6.

And almost all of you, both our customers and prospects, are talking to us about the move to IP voice and want us to help you get there.

We can offer you a migration path based on our local NGN platform or, if you prefer, on our BT Global IP Exchange platform in the UK. Both platforms can help you trade and drive your voice business as IP volumes keep on growing.  With its wide portfolio, BT deserves to be your partner of choice when it comes to IP Voice services.

When I wrote to you back in December 2011, GTM had several dozen customers around the world. I said then, “The more carriers we sign up for the Global IP Exchange, the more all of our partners will benefit from the growing number of international interconnects on our platform.” As of December 2012 the BT customers on our IPX numbered more than 300.

In fact, because of the strong growth in the number of customers using the Global IP Exchange, last October we launched our first IPX hub outside the UK, in Singapore.  We’re planning more of these nodes in other regions. The next one launched will be in Miami in the summer of 2013, to complement our footprints for Europe via our UK node and for Asia via our Singapore node.  For more information about BT Global IP Exchange services, please contact your account manager.

Or come and see me when I speak at the LambdaNet conference in Frankfurt near the end of the month.  I’ll be there with Sabine Tegeler, an account director in my GTM Germany team. Carsten Wessel, head of GTM Russia, CIS, Central & Eastern Europe, will join us.

Other members of my team will participate in conferences coming up around our region: the Global Carrier Community Meeting and Forum of Telecom Operators of Small States. If you’re going, do look them up, or drop an email to ask for a meeting.

In other conference news, Chris Bruce, director of international sales and consulting services, BT Global Telecom Markets, and co-chair, Wireless Broadband Alliance, plans to attend the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 25-28 February 2013.  You can meet him at the Wi-Fi Zone in Hall 8.1, Stand F3.  If you’d like to make an appointment to see him there, please send an email.

In his regular column “Talking telcos with BT Advise” Chris writes “Wi-Fi offload” is so last year – now it’s all about ‘onload’!”

Don’t miss “Business insights with Beatriz”, where our managing director talks about the BT Alliance Partner programme, news of our Global IP Exchange and BT One and BT Contact Services for Communications.

In “Let’s talk Voice” our chief operational officer Andrew Dodsworth shares highlights from his November trip to Asia, where he promoted our BT Global IP Exchange story.

Our regular section “Spotlight on BT products and services,” features “Global connectivity for live TV-quality video helps media firms focus on core competencies”.

For other product news, see “Protect your business from cyber attack with BT Assure Cyber” and “Ethical Hacking can help you secure your business against cyber threats”.

You may also be interested in “BT Inbound Contact Global: Even more benefits for global and regional customers” and “Grow your enterprise portfolio with unified communications: Add cloud based conferencing”.

Find out how BT is “Working to be a sustainable and responsible business leader” with our Better Future corporate responsibility strategy.  Thanks to this strategy “BT tops global league table for corporate social responsibility”.

In the UK “BT unveils world’s fastest working high-speed broadband service”.

In closing I’d like to thank you for your business in 2012 and tell you how much my team and I look forward to continuing to work with you in 2013.

If you’d like to know more about any of the topics in my column, please contact me. I would be delighted to hear from you. And come meet the members of my team and me at the conferences we will attend in the next few months.  We’ll be happy to see you.

Viele Grüβe, best regards,

Kai

Kai Thiel
Head of Global Telecom Markets (GTM)
Germany, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe

Biography:

Kai has added responsibility for Russia and Central and Eastern Europe to his role as head of Global Telecom Markets (GTM) Germany. Before taking on the German leadership position, Kai worked in several sales management functions across different sectors of BT.  After completing university in 2000 with a degree in economics, he began his career in VIAG Interkom, which became BT just a few years later.

In his spare time, Kai likes playing golf, reading a good book or going out and meeting friends.

Many of your corporate and SME customers are on the look-out for new ways of working to make their staffs more efficient. If you can provide a new approach that brings with it cost savings from reduced travel, you’ll help your customers improve their balance sheets, their environmental impact and their employees’ work-life balance.

BT One Conferencing gives you the opportunity to add white-labelled conferencing services from the cloud to your portfolio. Boosting your revenue streams with no upfront costs, these services marketed under your own brand can drive your business forward and help you compete more effectively in your marketplace.

Conferencing services make it easier for people to share information and work together remotely. In the past people had to get to the same location for really effective collaboration and informed decision-making.  Suppliers and customers found it hard to share the content for their business processes in real time. Modern conferencing lifts these barriers for your customers. By offering it to them, you can tap into new markets quickly.

BT offers three conferencing services as white-labelled, cloud-based solutions: MeetMe Global Access, WebEx and Microsoft LiveMeeting. The one you and your customers choose depends on the number of participants and whether they need to combine voice and web in one conferencing tool.

MeetMe Global Access enables instantaneous voice conferences for up to 40 people 24×7 with no prior booking. It includes a range of control options, plus operator assistance.

WebEx combines voice and online conferencing for up to 500 people. Besides using standard voice lines for audio-conferences, participants can share each other’s desktops and work with typical business software like presentations, documents and virtual whiteboards.

Microsoft LiveMeeting is similar to WebEx, but supports up to 1,250 participants.

Cloud-based BT One Conferencing gives you a number of benefits. Our white-labelling allows you to apply your own brand to drive customer loyalty and brand perception. Because you don’t face any upfront costs, you can enter a new market in just 20 days without major risks. Tapping into new revenue streams has seldom been easier.

As the service includes full management with training, in-life support and adoption management, you get all the support you need. You can offer significant value to your customers, because they in turn benefit from increased productivity and reduced business travel.  This means they can make their businesses more sustainable, speed up business decisions and improve the work/life balance of their employees.

For you, adding this value proposition to your portfolio means you can increase your revenue with no upfront costs, drive your business and compete more effectively in your marketplace.

To learn more about BT One Conferencing, please contact your account manager.