bob thompson

Q&A

Siemens' chief technology officer recently spoke to Wireless Review about the German vendor's IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform, its technology strategy and its recent success in the U.S. in light of its UMTS deal with Cingular Wireless.

On the complexities of the IMS platform: If you look at the components of that architecture, whether it's from the mobile network side or the fixed network side: the softswitch, the service delivery platforms, all of the other mechanisms — they all have a role to play in that architecture. It's chaotic not only from a customer requirements standpoint: IMS in itself is an open architecture. It's to a large degree standardized, but there's still a high degree of interoperation testing required to make sure one softswitch works with somebody else's application platform or feature server. IMS defines the architecture, but each service provider may team with multiple partners to deploy components of that whole IMS solution. From service provider to service provider, from customer to customer, there are completely different sets of partners and relationships you're dealing with. The challenge isn't the base technology. It's the integration and the interoperation piece.

On how Siemens has evolved to deal with carriers' new network needs: In many cases the configuration and installation work you're doing is on someone else's equipment. And customers are actually asking to see that level of integration and operation in your environment and trials in their environment. The drive from within a lot of service providers comes from product managers. To a product manager, the speed to market of the service offering is probably the premier requirement. It certainly has become a much more important criteria than in the past. Then, there was protracted assessment and negotiations and design workshops and so forth, but they are part of the up-front process now in the IMS space. We're leaning more toward the whole end-to-end solution — putting the customer in business. It's a much more consultative approach than in the past. Best-of-breed excellence in one network component is not a guarantee of success. Customers are driving more toward end-to-end solution provisioning. And that means integration testing, that means operational testing, that means cooperating with the service provider in establishing their entry into a particular service offering.

On Siemens' new role as a systems integrator in an overall ecosystem of vendors: From the design to the integration to the commissioning to facilitating the operational aspects, in virtually no case is an entire IMS solution delivered from Siemens, by Siemens full of Siemens content and equipment. There has always — and will continue to be — a significant piece of non-Siemens equipment in that solution. And that will vary from service provider to service provider. These alliances, these ecosystems, are a natural outgrowth of that environment.

On where Siemens' strengths are in the wireless industry: If you look at the core, we've got the softswitch, we've got a really strong UMTS core and IMS core for mobile services, and we've had them for a long time. In the access piece, we've got a very good base station. I'm not sure of the exact market position, but it's right up near the top in terms of share. Where we're coming along and where we see opportunities are in things like service delivery platforms and content management functions. We have some of that functionality, but that may be an emerging area that we choose to intensify our focus on. Those areas are also a significant piece of value for service providers.

On how Siemens landed its UMTS deal with Cingular, which had not used Siemens as a vendor in the past: Hard work and diligence. We have some talented and engaged folks on the mobile side. They lived and breathed that for a long time. There was one distinction we may have offered: we have a fairly large enterprise presence. More and more the customers we deal with are interested in accessing the enterprise to sell services. The Cingular deal significantly improves our position, our credibility we have and the resources we've deployed. It also means it's a critical success for us. We're devoting an awful lot of energy and effort to make it sure it goes well.