SPECIAL DELIVERY: SUPERCOMM 2004

Supercomm 2004 defines new direction for the communications industry with VoIP becoming the unstoppable hurricane. BAYERO AGABI who attended the event in Chicago, Illinois, US, reports that out of over 30,000 exhibited products pointing at the future, not one exhibitor came from Africa.

Supercomm is one of the world’s leading annual communication fair. It has become a platform for charting a way forward for the industry globally and it is a pointer to how the marketplace is changing with latest and upcoming technologies conspicuously displayed at the exhibition stands.

The yearly event is also a meeting place for technology eggheads where the state of technologies are discussed and the future of man within the dynamics of the IT industry are outlined. This years Supercomm certainly lived up to these expectations.

While the previous editions in the last six years had been hosted by the city of Atlanta, Georgia, US, This year’s event moved to Chicago and over 30.000 exhibitors were recorded. But none came from Africa.

There were various sessions as is the norm in events of this nature and one theme kept recurring: Broadband services were moving solidly into the mainstream. The facts were remarkable as was the recent figure showing increased availability and adoption of high bandwidth access. In other words, broadband services would drive the future.

The presentations from global giants Cisco Systems and Alvarion showed that 39 percent of American Internet users and 24 percent of all adult American have broadband Internet access at home. This development was an interesting piece of news to the CEO of Linkserve Chima Onyekwere, one of the few Nigerians at the event. Linkserve is a pioneer ISP in Nigeria. To Onyekwere, the figure shows that communications goes far beyond talking across networks.

He explained further with what he called the development assessment levels. The first is awareness, the second knowledge and the third, mastering. While the developed world is at the mastering level and researching into other discoveries, Onyekwere considered that Nigeria was still battling with the awareness level and may take it sometimes to enter the knowledge level. Anayo Agu of the Commercial Unit at the US Embassy in Nigeria shared this view. Agu who was the leader of the Nigerian delegation to the event said it was clear that societies such as the US had gone beyond mere usage of technologies; the appetite was now on researching evolving technologies.

For instance, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) was already impacting on how telcos in developed economies could deliver cheap services whereas in Nigeria, the national voice carrier was crying itself hoarse over loss of revenue. That Nigeria was not even given a mention in an event such as Supercomm was to Agu, a strong pointer that the country was still far from getting it right. He advised on the need for developmental policies that would engender growth in right direction for the communication sector. “ No Nigerian has been mentioned on the scale of global performance in communications even though more Nigerians attend this event than other African countries, this to me should send strong signal to Nigeria, that increase in GSM tele-density is not communication excellence,” said Agu.

Jerry Ekesiani of Geossana Communications, distributors of Amoi phones in Nigeria spoke in agreement with Agu. To him, Nigeria is still a technology-consuming nation and for it to be taking serious, technology development must first take firm root. Policy makers must review the policy framework from being consumption-focussed to development-centred. The CEO of Lagos based Signal Alliance, Collins Onuegbu, expressed happiness that the Nigerian regulator, Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission and the president of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Charles Joseph attended the fair. Nigeria recorded the highest number of attendees from Africa at the Supercomm 2004.

An expert in communication research, simply called Sabramanian, who made presentation at a session on broadband in the context of understanding the consumer and business assimilation of faster Internet services, used the analogy of the hush puppy shoe craze of the 1990s in which a discontinued item emerged from second hand stores to manufacturing at four times its previous production levels, described broadband Internet access as the next big thing that would determine consumers’ behaviour towards data-centred services. Sabramanian said the turning point for broadband use occurred in June 2003 and since then there has been significant increase in the use of broadband.

This increase rate in the usage of broadband by consumers, noted Subramanian, has emphasized applications such as digital television, high definition television, and VoIP. For Larry Hettick, an enterprise broadband panelist and president for Wireline Service, broadband spread has been helped by two principal drivers, the tele-worker support which involves both small office\ home office (SOHO) and distributed call centers. Hettick described the latter as call-centers involving geographically dispersed customer services attendants linked by VoIP, and who can respond to request from any location. The second driver is the remote office \ branch office (ROBO) which traditionally has been cost prohibitive for EI lines but which can be economically served by DSL or Cable.

Broadband flavours as presented at Supercomm 2004

The Yankee Group revealed that Cable presently holds a 2to1 lead over DSL in broadband implementation for residents of America. However, on the global scale, DSL holds a lead over Cable. The latest figures prepared for the DSL forum by the telecommunication analyst firm, Point Topic, shows that DSL had its biggest quarterly addition in the first three months of 2004. During the period, the United States added 1.18 million subscribers, closing the gap on Japan, the second largest DSL country with close to 14 Million subscribers but China continues to have the world’s largest DSL population.

Another area discussants highlighted the wide application of broadband was what was considered as the convergence of wireless systems. Top on the list on the discussants’ menu was Wifi. Wifi and cellular access for enterprise applications focused on linking cell phones and other devices to wireless LANs for seamless mobility and interoperability. One presenter who kept the listeners asking for more was Robert Alred, a Nortel Networks systems engineer who developed an integrated voice and data wireless infrastructure for about 1800 home depot stores. He stressed the importance of wireless for anytime, anywhere commutations.

“Look at teenagers,” he said, “to see future workforce applications, young people would be extremely comfortable with short message service (SMS) on their cell phones and multiple instant messaging conversations on their PC screens.” Alred added that when these teens become employees, they would expect the same ease of real time communications from enterprise networks that they have experienced in their personal lives. They will want to reach their colleagues directly and instantly.” Wifi fills these needs.  Jim Wojnarowski, the Standards and Technical director for Motorola, agreed that convergence technologies must simplify user lives. He said the present telephone structures of multiple devices and fragmented voice and data applications are increasingly unacceptable to users adding that the objective of seamless mobility communications requires an initial movement towards one wired network and a unification of cellular with Wifi or WLAWs. The final step according to him is to move from network to network without caring about such migrations. In all the different experts seemed to find consensus that although background technologies may remain distinct and separate the user experience should be seamless. End users or customers do not want just talk infrastructure. They want networks that offer a basket of different multi-media services beyond the ability to just talk.

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