NEW DELHI: ATM, ethernet, RPR, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, satellite... What next? In this age of consumerism, it is not only content and marketing that are consumer driven, but technology too.

This common sentiment on technology came through at a seminar on Access Technology here today at the Exhibitions India-organised 13th Convergence India where panelists spoke on the subject, giving the whole subject their own perspective.
 

The panelists felt that there was a need to make services attractive for the consumer. Whether it was a common node capable of delivering service in multiple ways or the emphasis on quality of service, the technology experts were emphatic that, for the consumer, what coloured his views was the application and how affordable it was.

This was amongst the many theories put forward by experts who have been active in the field of access technologies.
 
 

Motorola's Porotip Ghose, while making an interesting presentation on seamless mobility, illustrated the various networks and access technologies that a consumer interacted with in a day.

For good measure, he added that seamless mobility was "blurring the geographical barriers and concepts" such as headquarters, office and home.

In a world where devices are getting increasingly smarter, Ghose quoted from the future vision of international carriers, which have underlined four kind of communication --- human to human, humans to things, things to humans and things to things.

Chaired by Bharat sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) director for commercial and marketing, N K Mangla, the panelistsfor this session included Alcatel CTO Olivier Baujard, Lucent Technologies' Dr Eshwar Pitampalli and Juniper Networks India's Prasad Babu.

Lucent India's CTO, Dr Eshwar Pittampalli, while dwelling on broadband, said it's an always-on network capable of providing interactive voice, data and video services on public networks.

Throwing light on the opportunities in broadband, he said," Estimated addressable market today is 140 million to 200 million, while the penetration is less than 50 per cent.

Pointing out that the emrging models for broadband would embrace big enterprises, schools and public centres and mobile entertainment, Dr Pittampalli enlisted some challenges that the sector faced. They are as follows:

- The falling average return per unit and the need to keep it in check.

- Low cost business model for service offerings

- Affordability of access devices at attractive price points

- Low cost basic wireless

While wrapping up his presentation, Dr Piampalli emphasised on IP video, saying it was an essential component of successful service bundles.

Juniper Networks's Babu minced no words and said it in plain simple words: consumer was the king and driver of various access technology.

According to him, "An end users' views are driven by applications. A successful services model would have to be based on an understanding of how, by whom, where and when were the various applications and sub-applications used."

Talking about video content, he differentiated between various applications and said, "While broadcasting is multicasting, where a single stream is cast to multiple end users, video-on-demand demanded much more bandwidth because it is unicast."

All the speakers were also clear that whether it was wireless or wireline technology or associated technologies, what mattered more was the quality of the service, its simplicity in application and consistency of delivery.