An intelligent UK telephone network is fast becoming a realistic prospect – the manager of the Intelligent Networks Features division at British Telecommunications Plc recently suggested that by 1995 intelligent services would be available nationwide. Although the concept of intelligent networks has been around since the 1960s, interest is growing in the idea as the technology and its applications evolve. An intelligent network separates the software that controls basic switching from that which guides the call’s progression – and it is in the progression that advanced features are added. Key to the new network structure are software databases known as service control points. These contain all the necessary software for the intelligent services – software in the control point tells the switch what action to take in order to complete a call intelligently. According to London-based consultancy Ovum Ltd, this is where the computer companies are set to move in, providing intelligent software and hardware on which to run it.
Into bed
But the creation of an extra market for computer companies could mean a lost opportunity for switch manufacturers. In a recent report on intelligent networks, Ovum warned that the introduction of intelligent systems could leave switch vendors standing. It said, unless they get into bed with data processing vendors (they) will be reduced to selling commodity products by 2000. Ovum’s Eirwen Nichols explained that although switch vendors will benefit from intelligent networks in the short to medium term, upgrading exchanges to access the software and even setting up some databases, as standards become defined, the data processing companies were bound to move in. The key component that needs standardising, if the computer companies are to play, and the concept is really to take off, is the interface between the exchange and the computer database. The standardisation of this interface is said to be the mark of a true intelligent network and it will enable operators such as British Telecom to choose any intelligent service supplier, and make the cost of implementing intelligent services relatively cheap. But once this happens switch vendors could get left out Ovum predicts that half the intelligent networks market will become dominated by computer companies. However computer vendors also need to convince the telecommunications operators that they are capable of real-time continuous processing – telephone networks do not shut down at night. And the only vendor that seems to have managed this so far is Tandem Computers Inc. Last year Tandem announced that it was working with AT&T Co to bolt together its TCP-1000 service control point with AT&T’s Number 5ESS public telephone exchange. The intention is to produce equipment for the second generation of intelligent networks, advanced intelligent networks. UK exchange manufacturer GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd has also got together with Tandem. It has worked with the Cupertino-based company to couple a fault-tolerant S-2 Unix computer from Tandem with its System X exchange. In its initial implementation of intelligent networks, called Intelligent Network Phase 1 programme, British Telecom is using the GEC Plessey-Tandem technology in two service control points currently being set up at Oxford and Sheffield.
By Sonya McGilchrist
The service control points will be accessed from trunk switching units in the public network, which are being enhanced for the purpose by GEC Plessey. The control points are scheduled to be installed by the autumn, with trials starting in December and public services available from early next year. British Telecom has decided to use the intelligence to concentrate on number translation services, primarily 0898 numbers. 0898 is the lucrative premium rate service – the one where phone calls that are charged at 34p per minute off peak and 44p per minute at peak times. Information service companies use the lines to offer information over the phone, from share prices to salacious stories. Telecom already has the facility to p
rovide these, through a separate network that is now accessed from the normal network. But such is the popularity of 0898 services, including the increasing amount of televoting, that Telecom says bottlenecks are now bound to appear. However service popularity is not the only reason for building intelligent networks. 0898 services are high on profit margins and intelligent networks provides an opportunity for operators to add more features to the telephone system that can be charged at higher rates than plain telephone calls. In the UK, the full gamut of intelligent networks services will depend, according to British Telecom, on market demand and service suppliers, and intelligent networks is perceived as the first area of telephony that will be market rather than technology driven. ISDN, by contrast, is basically the digitisation of an old analogue network – a digital network is easier to operate and maintain – and the Services bit is almost a byproduct and is largely being left to third parties to devise. For intelligent networks, British Telecom has a centre set up in London for creating the software for potential intelligent network services. And large customers are being asked to contribute service ideas. Certain ideas are beginning to catch people’s imagination, one which British Telecom seems to be backing is personal phone numbers.
Electronic diary
Under a personal numbering system, the network would be able to trace a moving customer. The customer would fill in an electronic diary over the phone, saying where they would be at different times in the day. When a caller dials the personal number, the network routes the call to whichever phone the customer has said she will be on at that time. Aside from the revenues to be had from these services BT admits that it could see itself managing customer’s networks via intelligent networks. As companies begin to farm out the increasingly complex business of maintaining and overseeing the network, telephone operators have been keen to pick up the lucrative contracts; last year Telecom launched its Concert network management system, part of its Global Network Services package which it offers to multi-nationals. Through intelligent networks it is easier to offer virtual private networks – lines that appear private to the customer but which actually carry other traffic too. Virtual Private Networks are popular in the US they offer benefits such as centralised billing and common numbering plans and are cheaper than leasing lots of private lines. Eirwen Nichols explains that hybrid networks, a mixture of leased lines and virtually leased lines can either be managed by the organisation or can be handed over the operator to look after. And this is perhaps the ultimate intelligent networks benefit for telecommunications operators looking for extra revenue.
