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Oscar's outlook
I've recently returned to my office after International Telecoms Week (ITW) in Washington, DC. The conference website says “ITW is now firmly established as the industry's premier meeting place for telecommunications companies seeking a neutral setting in which to arrange bilateral agreements with one another”. If you attended, you know that’s true, and the neutral setting is ideal for brainstorms and debates about how our industry should respond to the financial pressures on traditional voice.
It was obvious from our meetings that life is hard these days for traditional carriers of wholesale voice, who are having to find new ways to make money. I say “they” but in BT we see our traditional revenues and margins under pressure, too. One of our pro-active responses was to consolidate our supply arrangements so we can continue to offer you a best-in-class cost base for voice for the foreseeable future.
We are also developing IP Interoperability services and recently announced the global availability of IP Exchange, our wholesale service that enables communications providers to seamlessly connect VoIP to VoIP, and VoIP to traditional voice infrastructures. More than 100 fixed line and mobile operators in the UK are already using the service, and we’re delighted with our progress in worldwide implementation. Customers can connect to BT’s IP Exchange hubs using different access methods including BT’s high-quality MPLS network with points of presence (PoPs) in over 170 countries.
While at ITW, a senior representative of one of the leading mobile operators in Europe told me I can be proud of what BT has achieved and the progress we’re making with Interoperability. This is very encouraging, and it creates the responsibility for us to help you succeed. Many of the customers we met at ITW are interested in our service and several others are developing Interoperability services themselves. We talked about interconnecting their hubs and BT’s to extend the reach of all our networks, and we plan further conversations with all our prospects in the coming months.
Other new ways we look to build new business with you are value-added services on top of existing propositions such as BT SMS Hubbing; International Toll Free Service; and Ribbit - our new Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that helps carriers build and monetise new applications quickly.
That's an overview of the topics we talked about at ITW. As always, it was great to re-establish contact with current customers and meet new ones. We look forward to continuing the conversations we started there and to seeing everyone back at ITW next year.
Before I sign off, I'd like to introduce you to my colleague Colin Brooks, general manager of BT Telconsult, who is interviewed in this issue of Global Telecom News.
I'd also like to mention that I spoke on "Exploiting new wholesale to enable IP and telco 2.0 business models" at TM Forum Management World. I enjoyed networking with other delegates at the conference and made some excellent business contacts. I plan to speak at other conferences in the future and hope to cross paths with you there.
Meanwhile, if you think I may be able to help you, don’t hesitate to contact me.
With best regards
Oscar Ruiz
President, BT Global Telecom Markets
Biography
Oscar Ruiz became President of Global Telecom Markets in the second half of 2008. Prior to BT, Oscar was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he acquired considerable international experience and an in-depth knowledge of the telecommunications and banking industries.
Oscar is fluent in English, Spanish and French. He holds a degree in telecommunications engineering and earned his master of business administration (MBA) from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management in the US.
Oscar's favourite way to spend his rare free time is skiing, especially at Kitzbühel in Austria.
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