GSM association - Heralding a converged communications era

In a free-wheeling interview with TIMES GLOBAL JOURNAL,
Jaikishan Rajaraman outlines the multi-faceted role of the GSM
Association, its various initiatives and issues related to IMS (Internet
Protocol Multimedia Subsystem)

Jaikishan Rajaraman is Director, Product and Service Development at the GSM Association (GSMA). Rajaraman is responsible for the Services Review Group, which oversees, and provides guidance and leadership to the various product and services teams within the GSM Association. The main focus of the Service Review Group (SRG) is to develop service requirements from GSM operators for GSM and 3rd Generation equipment, taking into account billing and customer care issues.

SRG also provides a connection between operator marketing requirements and technical realization, involving standardization. In addition, Rajaraman is responsible for some key projects within the GSM Association, which impact the way operators work together today for roaming and inter-working. Some of these represent a paradigm shift in the current models, while others require the deployment of sophisticated technology and infrastructure.

On the orchestration of IMS trials by the GSM Association and why is it not just a commercial consideration for the network operators

Jaikishan Rajaraman: This is one of the key initiatives of the GSMA that actually started in 2005 and really gained a lot of momentum during the year, not just in Europe, but also in Asia and North America. The main application that was portrayed was video sharing; we looked at the mobility and interoperability of how video sharing works in different parts of the world as a shared service, and then the semantics of commercial deployment. These trials are expected to be completed within the next four months and we have 50 companies involved in the IMS trials, ranging from network infrastructure players to carriers and mobile operators.

The most important aspect about the trials is that we have substantially demonstrated why IMS networks are fundamentally the key in terms of the evolution of an all-IP network for the GSM community. We also looked at issues like IP interconnectivity and addressing between operators. Based on the success of these trials, we might go onto other types of services that we would want to trial on IMS through 2006 and 2007.

On interaction with the Standards Bodies and the impact on GSM Association members

Jaikishan Rajaraman: The GSM Association feeds operators' views and needs into the evolution of all relevant standards related to cellular technologies and also the exciting new world of Next Generation Networks. The standards are defined by 3GGP, IEEE, IETF etc., but at no point do we try to force members to follow certain standards. When we run trials, the aim is to outline a frame of reference, the benefits of such technologies and their possible adoption on a commercial basis.

The work that is being done by the Association is based on the standards that are created within the various standards organizations and forums. All the operators themselves are active participants at such
forums. Of course, the perception is that the standards are highly ‘engineering’ in nature and our role is to translate them into something simple and workable for the operators for particular products, services
and technologies. The GSM Association ensures that there is a much needed 'service focus' on various technologies so that consumers are able to avail of all new services, which are exciting and useful.

On the guiding role of the GSM Association in ensuring interoperability and promoting best practices in revenue sharing models and pricing structures

Jaikishan Rajaraman: The GSMA seeks to ensure that interoperability is implemented properly-from a commercial, technical and a services perspective- so that operators' customers can use services with the confidence that they will work across networks and across equipment from different suppliers. However, it is important to understand that the Association at no stage gets involved in terms of retail pricing, tariff
structures or pricing methodology for any services - current or future- offered. Nor does it get involved in any revenue settlement issues between operators. That is left totally to the service providers. Though, we do recommend best practices in pricing structures adopted by our members in key markets and share that with other members.

On the fresh set of challenges in delivering the next level of interoperable services and the learnings from the MMS adoption

Jaikishan Rajaraman: The industry launched MMS without widespread interoperability. The key learning experience was that a person-to-person service won't be heavily used unless it is interoperable across networks. There were islands of MMS implementation around the world but hardly any interoperability. Basically, people had no idea about who they could send multimedia messages to, what kind of multimedia messages could be sent, the networks actually supporting MMS and the kind of charging that was applicable for MMS services inside and outside the networks etc. We have addressed that retrospectively and MMS services in many cases are now interoperable.

Based on these learnings and the experiences, the GSM Association sees a need to focus more on interworking and interoperability for the next generation of services that the industry is looking to rollout. We feel that Instant Messaging (IM) has the potential of becoming the next big application. Many industry leaders are quite clear and unequivocal in their stand that IM services have to be interoperable across various access forms and straddle geographical domains so that customers are assured of hassle-free usage and seamless availability of services.

On the adoption of IM services due to increased convergence

Jaikishan Rajaraman: The heartening part is that IM is already an established product thanks to MSN, Yahoo, Google etc. Due to convergence and increasing wireless interactivity, there will be linkages
between a number of players in the fixed line space and operators in the cellular space. The recent interoperable agreement signed between Vodafone and MSN in Europe is a step in the right direction and is a very good example of how even the fixed line players are beginning to see the merits of having proper interoperable services. There are many areas where such convergence is happening and will continue to happen and our objective is to make sure that it happens in a fashion that benefits everybody in the value chain.