Broadband internet services have grown rapidly in the last few years with over 50% households now having broadband access in most advanced industrial countries, South Korea leading the way at over 90% penetration. Outside of the USA, DSL technologies are favoured, with fibre and broadband wireless access providing solutions for specific areas, such as multiple occupancy dwellings and rural regions. DSL service providers may own their own access network, may exploit local loop unbundling or may simply resell the incumbent operator’s access lines. With the success of broadband services comes significant challenges, primarily the combination of growing core network capacity costs to meet ever rising bandwidth demands and falling subscription fees in competitive markets.

In the face of these challenges, broadband service providers have a very significant asset: the customer base. Take-up by existing customers of bundled services adds revenue directly to the top line and also reduces subscriber churn, maintaining the revenue stream with lower dependence on new acquisition costs. For the customer, a service bundle offers the benefits of convenience and potential cost savings for multiple services.

APPLICATIONS

DIGITALK Broadband Telephony for residential customers and IP Virtual Office for small- to medium-sized businesses are ideal applications to form the basis of a bundled broadband services offer.

Broadband Telephony	DIGITALK Broadband Telephony can easily be added to the service provider’s existing IP access and core network infrastructure. A highly competitive service can be enabled with individual user calling features and voicemail. And for ISPs new to telecoms, the DIGITALK Multiservice Platform provides the features and functionality necessary to run a complete network and subscriber service.
IP Virtual Office	Broadband service providers can offer DIGITALK IP Virtual Office to small- to medium-sized businesses over managed broadband access links, enabling dedicated bandwidth, security and quality of service. Expanded market access can then be achieved by offering a branded wholesale service to established SME channels and IT services organisations.

PLATFORM

The DIGITALK Multiservice Platform with the Media Application Server offers broadband service providers the ideal platform on which to deploy and operate new and growing IP telephony services. The integral network provisioning, service management and customer care capabilities – backed by real-time rating for prepaid charging and revenue assurance – enables service providers to very rapidly deploy services.

CUSTOMERS

Broadband service providers offering DIGITALK applications including the following:

• Broadtalk
• Digiweb
• Hotchilli
• Telfort