Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers

26 March 2013 ID:G00239842

Analyst(s): Neil Rickard, Robert F. Mason

VIEW SUMMARY

Demand for global network services continues to grow, while competition between global providers and from regional sourcing is driving down prices. Only competitive procurement can make these improved prices accessible. The challenge is to ensure service quality is not compromised in the process.

Market Definition/Description

This Magic Quadrant assesses suppliers that can deliver fixed enterprise networking services worldwide. Services to be provided include:

• WAN services, predominantly managed, including Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and IPsec VPNs, and Ethernet services
• Voice services, including switched and dedicated voice and SIP trunks
• Dedicated Internet services, including managed VPN offers

In addition, it is highly desirable for providers to offer value-added networking services, including, but not limited to, application-fluent networking, managed LANs and managed network security services. Integrators, virtual operators and carriers are included, but only if they provide and manage offerings that include the underlying networking services.
Hosted services (such as hosted Internet Protocol [IP] telephony or unified communications), cloud services (such as infrastructure as a service [IaaS]), and stand-alone managed and professional services (not sold as part of the network) are not considered in this research, because they are addressed in other Gartner research.

Magic Quadrant

Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers

Source: Gartner (March 2013)

Vendor Strengths and Cautions

AT&T

Financial strength and the depth of global network coverage in the major markets remain strong selling points for AT&T. In China and Latin America, the vendor's Global Virtual partnering model provides a deeper level of interconnection than a pure network-to-network interface (NNI) approach. AT&T has a strongly tiered approach to global enterprise accounts, with a primary focus on approximately 1,700 multinational accounts. The vendor tends to focus strongly on MPLS services when designing solutions, although it also offers Internet VPN services. Its extensive portfolio of owned infrastructure allows for more control of the delivery model and includes options for regional diversity. Multinational companies with a presence that includes a significant number of U.S. locations should strongly consider AT&T for global voice and data services.

Strengths

• AT&T has good infrastructure in the major markets globally, and its Global Virtual approach to extending its reach provides a strong solution in China and large parts of Latin America.
• Gartner clients have reported significant improvements in service delivery and change management in India, a region that had been a challenge for AT&T.
• AT&T remains in a strong financial position to invest in network capacity and to layer additional services onto its core global network.

Cautions

• Current gaps in Latin America and Africa network coverage have caused some organizations to use regional network providers to complement AT&T, although AT&T has plans to address these gaps with its Global Virtual model.
• Gartner clients continue to report that AT&T invoicing is complex and that billing issues are a source of frustration; however, AT&T has plans to improve these processes.
• While the vendor devotes a lot of attention and resources to larger multinational companies and enterprises with a significant U.S. presence, it does not always give equivalent focus to midsize multinational enterprises, which have networking needs predominantly outside the U.S.

BT Global Services

BT Global Services is continuing its network consolidation and service simplification process, resulting in good service quality for these standard items, such as WANs and associated managed services. The vendor is not quite as good at nonstandard offerings, such as providing mobile services. It continues to enhance its WAN service portfolio with new offerings such as multiservice access, and is investing to track and enhance the customer experience. BT Global Services has strong global coverage; Europe and Latin America are the regions where it is at its strongest. The vendor is making incremental investments in the Middle East, Africa and the Asia/Pacific region. BT Global is least competitive in the U.S. market. It recently significantly reorganized into five geographic regions and nine vertical sectors, and invested in marketing and internal tools to improve the customer experience. Organizations of all sizes should consider BT Global Services for their global networking needs, especially for larger managed network service requirements.

Strengths

• The vendor's already extensive coverage continues to grow with new MPLS, and Ethernet points of presence (POPs), NNIs and even metro fiber networks deployed in 2012 and planned for 2013.
• BT Global Services' service quality remains high, especially for standard services from its extensive portfolio, such as IP Connect (MPLS) and Connect Applications (WAN optimization/application performance management [APM]).
• The vendor has a strong road map for supporting enterprise cloud networking needs (not just its own cloud services), including Internet service expansion, more Internet gateways, cloud-embedded optimization and security services, and virtualized customer premises equipment (CPE).

Cautions

• Although BT Global Services has a strong U.K. SIP trunk offering, outside the U.K., its SIP trunk offering is more basic in features and limited in coverage than those of its leading competitors.
• The vendor's commercial offerings have not been as innovative as some other providers included in this Magic Quadrant. For example, it does not offer standard utility (per port/per seat) LAN or WAN offerings, although it does deliver these on a custom basis.
• BT Global Services struggles to match the pricing of U.S. domestic providers for networks with substantial needs in that market.

Cable&Wireless Worldwide

Cable&Wireless Worldwide has been acquired by Vodafone. Vodafone has already begun to fund initiatives to improve Cable&Wireless Worldwide's customer experience. We expect that Vodafone will also integrate its existing national fixed line networks with those of Cable&Wireless, and, most importantly, will leverage its extensive sales force to sell Cable&Wireless Worldwide services. On the other hand, Vodafone is giving out mixed messages regarding its commitment to the fixed network market, selling some parts of its Gateway Pan-African fixed networking unit to PCCW. In the short term, we have seen little improvement in the customer service issues reported by Cable&Wireless clients. Enterprises with significant coverage needs in the U.K. and/or India should consider Cable&Wireless Worldwide.

Strengths

• As part of Vodafone, we expect Cable&Wireless to integrate its global network assets, which are especially strong in the U.K. and India, with existing Vodafone fixed networks in markets such as Africa, Germany, Spain and Italy within 12 to 24 months.
• Vodafone will be able to offer Cable&Wireless fixed networking products through its extensive worldwide sales force, and we have already seen early examples of commercially combined fixed and mobile offerings.

Cautions

• Gartner clients are still reporting a high level of dissatisfaction with Cable&Wireless Worldwide's service quality, both for new site implementation and ongoing support. Vodafone's initiatives to improve Cable&Wireless' customer experience must address these issues within the next six months or Cable&Wireless Worldwide will lose its credibility as a global provider.
• Cable&Wireless' network service portfolio is weak in areas such as SIP trunks, hybrid IP WANs and networking services to support enterprise cloud requirements.
• The combined network and sales coverage of Cable&Wireless Worldwide and Vodafone still lacks depth in some important markets, including the U.S., France, Latin America, China and Russia.

CenturyLink

CenturyLink is a new addition to this year's Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers, meeting all our inclusion criteria for the first time. CenturyLink has integrated the networks and sales teams from its Savvis acquisition into its Enterprise Markets Group. In addition to the U.S., CenturyLink's sales and operational resources are concentrated in London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. While the current CenturyLink network is modest in size, compared with the leading providers in this Magic Quadrant, it is investing in further network expansion and portfolio development. Midsize multinational enterprises with needs that are focused on the major markets should consider CenturyLink.

Strengths

• CenturyLink continues to receive positive feedback from Gartner clients regarding service delivery and ongoing support for core networking services.
• The vendor has demonstrated commercial flexibility, including custom SLAs, that has allowed enterprises to target solutions for specific performance requirements.

Cautions

• CenturyLink has less coverage via owned infrastructure than other providers in this research, especially in growth geographies, such as Latin America, Eastern Europe and India.
• The vendor can sometimes struggle with CPE support, especially in developing markets.
• Although aggressive road maps are in place, CenturyLink's portfolio is currently lacking in areas such as SIP trunks, managed LANs and hybrid WANs.

Level 3 Communications

Level 3 Communications has made substantial progress in integrating its acquisition of Global Crossing, to the point where it is now able to turn its attention to network and portfolio expansion. Network expansion in the Asia/Pacific region is beginning to address this historically weak geography for the vendor, while expansion of the number and reach of Level 3's own metro fiber networks in Europe and the Americas will allow it to be competitive for high-speed connections in these markets. Gartner clients are reporting improving service quality from Level 3. The vendor should be considered by enterprises with networks that require strong coverage in North and/or South America.

Strengths

• Level 3's network coverage is especially strong in the U.S., Latin America and Western Europe.
• The vendor's pricing for services, especially high-speed services, is very attractive in markets where it has good network coverage.
• Level 3 now has enterprise voice offerings, including SIP trunks, to leverage its extensive voice wholesale business.

Cautions

• The vendor's network and sales coverage lacks strength in the Asia/Pacific region, Eastern Europe and Africa, compared with Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.
• Level 3's managed service portfolio is more basic than that of the Leaders in this Magic Quadrant in areas such as managed LAN.
• The vendor's plans to support enterprise cloud networking needs are primarily focused on inter-data-center connectivity, rather than end-user connectivity.

NTT Communications

NTT Communications continues to invest in growing its global network (for example, with a major new network deployed in Europe). The vendor has a reasonable portfolio of network-related managed services, although some of these come from other companies in the NTT Group. While Dimension Data remains a separate company within the NTT Group, it frequently brings NTT Communications into opportunities, providing a valuable supplement to NTT Communication's limited global sales coverage, when compared with other leading providers in this Magic Quadrant. NTT Communications is strongest for enterprises with networks that have a major focus on the Asia/Pacific region and/or Africa.

Strengths

• The vendor has a flexible hybrid WAN offering, including MPLS and Ethernet unified access.
• NTT Communications is starting to address enterprises' broader cloud networking needs with its Cloud Conscious Network initiative.
• The vendor has a reputation for delivering high-quality services.

Cautions

• Although NTT Communications continues to grow its network, its sales coverage remains much smaller than that of its leading competitors, especially outside the Asia/Pacific region.
• The vendor's voice services (such as SIP trunks), WAN optimization/APM and managed LAN services still lag behind those of the Leaders in this Magic Quadrant, although Dimension Data can help NTT Communications in some of these areas.
• NTT Communication's brand recognition as a global network provider is much lower than that of the leading providers in this Magic Quadrant.

Orange Business Services

Orange Business Services has the broadest network coverage of any global operator, and is in the process of further improving its depth of coverage by using the national infrastructures of other Orange entities around the world. The vendor has recently taken the unusual step of contracting with AT&T for all its U.S. access, but it is still too early to tell how effective this will be in improving price competitiveness and service levels. Orange Business Services' Ethernet services are now widely deployed, but is operated as a separate platform from its MPLS services, making multiservice access more challenging. Orange Business Services should be considered for managed network service deals of all sizes.

Strengths

• The vendor's MPLS network has coverage in more countries than any other network service provider, and its Ethernet services are also widely deployed, compared with its competitors.
• Orange Business Services has a very broad portfolio of managed network services and also offers a customized program called Communications as a Service.
• The vendor is commercially responsive (for example, proactively proposing benchmarking of existing deals as an alternative to RFPs).

Cautions

• Orange Business Services focuses on its own cloud services and its Business VPN Galerie cloud services brokering, and is less focused on addressing the broader cloud networking needs of enterprises.
• Although the vendor continues to make efforts to improve its agility and responsiveness, Gartner clients report that it is not especially proactive and can be inflexible and unresponsive, especially regarding ad hoc pricing requests and expediting urgent installations.
• Orange Business Services tends to focus its sales efforts on MPLS solutions, with hybrid WANs only offered as a custom option.
• While broad in reach, the vendor's network lacks infrastructure depth in several major markets, such as the U.K. and Germany, where it uses partners, making it less cost-effective for networks requiring substantial domestic coverage in those markets. The impact of the AT&T deal on Orange Business Services' U.S. pricing has yet to be seen.

Reliance Globalcom

Reliance has combined its substantial domestic Indian enterprise business with its Globalcom international business, giving it the potential to extend parts of its substantial domestic Indian managed service portfolio to other markets. Reliance Globalcom makes more extensive use of third-party networks and NNIs than any other provider in this research, and has developed a set of comprehensive SLAs to unify the resulting customer experience. This approach can be particularly cost-effective when large numbers of highly distributed branch locations require connections. The vendor uses Dell SecureWorks to provide security services, which brings it strong capabilities, but will make embedding security deeply into its own network offerings more challenging, compared with most other providers that have in-house security capabilities. Reliance Globalcom should be considered for global managed service requirements, especially for midsize global organizations.

Strengths

• Reliance Globalcom has a strong hybrid IP WAN offering that combines multiple network types with overall management, WAN optimization and APM, with a flexible solution design approach.
• The vendor has developed a best-in-class set of SLAs for its network services, regardless of the underlying provider.
• Reliance Globalcom has a strong focus on emerging markets, in which its integrator approach is particularly appropriate.

Cautions

• Reported service quality for both new site installation and problem management, although improving, is still patchy, compared with leading providers in this market.
• Reliance Globalcom's global voice and SIP trunk offerings are significantly less developed than those of its competitors; it is mostly simply reselling services from other providers.
• The vendor has not developed specific networking solutions to support enterprise cloud challenges, apart from its CloudCover APM offering.

Sprint

Sprint continues to grow its global MPLS network, which now has sufficient on-net reach for many multinational enterprises, while Ethernet coverage has also been expanded through partners. Sprint differentiates itself in international MPLS pricing by not charging port premiums for class-of-service tiers and offering simplified contracts that are not heavily customized. On the service front, Sprint has expanded its global SIP trunk footprint and has leveraged its wireless assets for additional U.S. access options. U.S. multinational enterprises and enterprises with connectivity requirements that align with Sprint's growing backbone should consider the vendor for international networks.

Strengths

• Sprint continues to deliver simplified pricing and packaging of services that makes data services easy to procure and that align with the existing demand set.
• Gartner clients provide consistently positive feedback on the timeliness, granularity, transparency and accuracy of network information delivered through Sprint's Compass portal.
• Sprint competes aggressively on price when leveraging its U.S. base, and does not charge a premium for multicast and class-of-service tiers for international locations.

Cautions

• Sprint has been increasing its wireline investments and SoftBank may bring an additional infusion of investment; however, the vendor's current level of wireline capital investment trails that of the leading providers in this Magic Quadrant.
• Sprint is adding nodal coverage strategically, but is heavily dependent on partners for emerging regions, such as Africa.
• Sprint has limited sales coverage and marketing visibility outside the U.S.

T-Systems

T-Systems' network and sales coverage is strongest in Europe, but in other regions, it has significantly less coverage than its leading competitors. T-Systems is taking a partnering approach, using NNIs, to improve its networking geographic footprint, rather than growing its own network. However, it has been enhancing its managed service capabilities in areas such as hybrid networking, APM and cellular access. It is also beginning to address cloud networking needs, beyond supporting its own cloud services, with capabilities such as virtualized edge devices and dynamic bandwidth adjustment. T-Systems is strongest for enterprises seeking managed services, especially when their footprint is weighted toward Europe or in the automotive manufacturing sector.

Strengths

• T-Systems has a flexible approach to WAN solution design with a broad portfolio of hybrid networking options, including WAN optimization, cellular access and APM.
• The vendor has a well-developed LAN offering, including utility (price-per-port) services.
• Gartner clients report a high level of satisfaction with the quality of experience associated with T-Systems' services.

Cautions

• T-Systems' global SIP trunk capabilities are significantly behind those of the leading providers in this Magic Quadrant, in terms of coverage and functionality.
• The vendor has limited sales coverage outside of Europe.
• T-Systems has done little in the past 12 months to improve its low market awareness as a network service provider, as opposed to an IT service provider.

Tata Communications

Tata Communications is continuing its evolution from a supplier of regional networks and point products to a more solution-oriented provider, supporting larger global enterprise networks. The vendor has innovative service offerings, including its Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) per-seat utility WAN offering. Tata Communications should be considered by organizations with global networks that require strong coverage of the Asia/Pacific region, especially India, Africa and the Middle East.

Strengths

• Tata Communications offers hybrid IPsec, MPLS, Ethernet WAN services; however, its Ethernet services are delivered from a separate platform, limiting WAN and access integration options.
• The vendor has a strong network security capability.
• Tata Communications has launched global SIP trunk services, allowing enterprises to leverage its extensive voice resources.
• Its global network is especially strong in India and the Middle East, and is expanding from South Africa to cover most of Africa.

Cautions

• Tata Communications' network footprint is weaker in the Americas, especially South America.
• The vendor lacks a global managed LAN services.
• Tata Communications does not currently have any services targeted at supporting enterprise cloud networking needs.

Telefonica

Telefonica has expanded the list of companies directly addressed by its Telefonica Global Solutions group from 250 to 800 of the largest multinational enterprises and corporate customers. The global network is also used to support Telefonica's national businesses in markets such as Spain, Germany, the U.K. and Latin America in addressing other enterprises with international requirements. However the national businesses have widely differing approaches to fixed network services. The vendor continues modest expansion of its global networks, particularly its Ethernet service network. We have yet to see any significant differentiation arising from its equity stake in China Unicom. Telefonica should be considered by enterprises with networks that require strong coverage of Europe and Latin America.

Strengths

• Telefonica's global network has especially strong coverage in Europe and Latin America.
• The vendor has a class-leading global SIP trunk capability, with a broad range of enterprise features and extensive global coverage.
• Telefonica Global Solutions offers the largest multinational companies a very customer-centric approach to service design and delivery.

Cautions

• Only a defined list of 800 large enterprises are directly served by the Telefonica Global Solutions group, with other companies handled by country-level businesses, which have differing approaches to fixed networking.
• Although networking for cloud services features in Telefonica's long-term planning, there are no short-term plans for such offerings.
• The vendor only offers managed LAN services on a project basis, not as a standardized service offering.
• Telefonica's network and sales coverage is weaker in Africa, much of the Asia/Pacific region and Eastern Europe.

Verizon

Verizon's international data service volumes are growing at a faster pace than its U.S. services, and the vendor is responding with expansion of its own infrastructure on a limited basis and with considerable additional partnering. This is especially evident in Ethernet, where Verizon now has over 200 partners extending service in 32 countries. In addition to private data, the vendor also continues to grow its footprint for SIP trunk services, which are now available in 11 countries in EMEA and several in the Asia/Pacific region, along with its core U.S. service. While coverage has been a strong point, network availability and service delivery remained challenges for Verizon in 2012, especially with distributed enterprises, and remain a concern for multinational companies. Verizon continues to grow its Long Term Evolution (LTE) access to its Private IP offering in the U.S., an initiative that should mediate some availability issues. Outside the U.S., Verizon has suffered delays in offering cellular WAN access, after its chosen partner Vodafone acquired rival global operator Cable&Wireless Worldwide. Global enterprises of all sizes should consider Verizon for managed and unmanaged networking and voice services.

Strengths

• Verizon has broad network coverage and considerable depth, down to the metropolitan fiber network in most major economies, and continues to aggressively add to its Ethernet coverage through regional partner NNIs.
• Verizon has extended its reach in Brazil, Russia, India and China, including diverse private IP nodes and Ethernet NNI partners, closing the gap with the other leading operators in these formerly weaker geographies.
• The vendor has a comprehensive portfolio of managed services, including security, LAN and voice services.

Cautions

• Gartner clients continue to report challenges with service delivery, especially timely new site installation, in the U.S. and EMEA.
• Verizon has been less aggressive than its peers in offering unified global agreements, or in taking over existing provider agreements to facilitate a unified customer experience.
• Verizon is now delivering far more of its WAN services via NNIs, which can impact the service experience, compared with using its own network infrastructure, so enterprises need to ensure that the customer experience and SLAs of these services are sufficient to meet their needs.

Vendors Added or Dropped

We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes as markets change. As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant or MarketScope may change over time. A vendor appearing in a Magic Quadrant or MarketScope one year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. This may be a reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or a change of focus by a vendor.

Added

CenturyLink now meets our inclusion criteria.

Dropped

No vendors were dropped from this Magic Quadrant.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

To be considered for inclusion in this Magic Quadrant, providers must meet all the following criteria:

• They must offer data (enterprise WAN, at a minimum MPLS), voice and managed network services to enterprise customers, delivering service and/or having POPs in a minimum of 25 countries and in at least three of the following geographic regions: North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific and Latin America.
• They must actively sell enterprise networking services to organizations in a minimum of 25 countries and in at least three geographic regions (out of North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific and Latin America), and not just sell networking services in other regions for delivery in those markets.
• They must generate at least $200 million in direct global enterprise network service revenue annually (excluding domestic business and wholesale).
• They must not just resell network services from another global provider.

Evaluation Criteria

Ability to Execute

Our emphasis is on a vendor's service quality, pricing and track record. These elements are particularly important for global networks, because the issues of infrastructure, language and cultural problems become more complicated and prolonged than when applicable to only one country.

Table 1. Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria	Weighting
Product/Service	High
Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization)	Standard
Sales Execution/Pricing	High
Market Responsiveness and Track Record	High
Marketing Execution	Standard
Customer Experience	High
Operations	Standard

Source: Gartner (March 2013)

Completeness of Vision

We look for a thorough understanding of what customers want in a global provider, which is different from the requirements of a domestic provider, because it inevitably includes third-party elements, and frequently includes a wider set of managed services. Network service providers should have a clear and evolving geographic strategy to meet the changing needs of customers. The portfolio should be broad enough to satisfy the evolving requirements of most enterprises, not just a specific vertical industry or customer size. While not prescriptive, visionary providers should have a clearly articulated strategy and market traction in evolving areas, including SIP trunks, networking for cloud services and APM.

Table 2. Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria	Weighting
Market Understanding	Standard
Marketing Strategy	Low
Sales Strategy	Standard
Offering (Product) Strategy	High
Business Model	Standard
Vertical/Industry Strategy	Standard
Innovation	High
Geographic Strategy	High

Source: Gartner (March 2013)

Quadrant Descriptions

Leaders

Leaders have a full portfolio of voice and data products, coupled with above-average service and support, wide global coverage, and competitive pricing. They have a strong vision that includes adopting more information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities, which is a strategy they articulate clearly and openly.

Challengers

Challengers exhibit good capabilities in the areas of service and support, pricing and coverage. However, their long-term plans are sometimes vague. They may not understand the requirements of enterprises or the market, but what they offer tends to be of good quality.

Visionaries

Visionaries have a clear understanding of the market and where it is going; however, they often lack the financial and people resources to execute on these directions.

Niche Players

Niche Players are often strong in a specific element of execution (such as service and support) or part of the product portfolio, or they offer low pricing. However, they usually lack comprehensive vision and resources.

Context

The number of organizations requiring global networking services continues to grow, due to globalization and cloud services, which are often hosted in different markets from the point of consumption. Organizations' appetite for more bandwidth shows no signs of diminishing, with video and big data, coupled with IT centralization, as the primary drivers. Reliability and performance control are growing in importance as business processes become ever more IT-dependent; in addition, IT architectures (such as thin client computing) place ever greater reliance on the network.
This demand is being met not only by the growing number of global providers featured in this Magic Quadrant, but also via the option of using multiple regional operators as an alternative to a single global provider. This intense competition tends to drive down unit prices for global networking services. However, in a market where there are no meaningful price lists, enterprises will only obtain the best prices via strong negotiation and competitive procurement.

Market Overview

As previously mentioned, this edition of the Magic Quadrant has seen the number of global network service providers meeting the inclusion criteria rising yet again, with CenturyLink joining the providers included. Vodafone acquired Cable&Wireless Worldwide, which, although not affecting the total number of providers, brings the resources of another major provider to bear on this market.

Continuing intense competition has caused market prices for global network services to continue to decline. Providers have responded to this pressure with limited extensions of their own networks, but principally by making much more extensive use of NNIs to interconnect with regional and national providers. This is especially true for large emerging markets, such as Russia, Brazil, India and China, where the scale of the market makes building an extensive national presence expensive and where competitive market access may be restricted. From an enterprise perspective, the drawback of this trend is that, with most global providers using the same local partners, there may be little effective competition for sites in those markets. Depending on the degree of integration the global provider has carried out, the service may not be completely equivalent (in terms of SLAs and service visibility) to services delivered by the provider's own network.

Another part of the response of many of the global providers to price pressure is to rationalize their back-office functions by consolidating staff, offshoring and ultimately automating as many functions as possible. In 2011, this cost cutting caused a noticeable dip in average service quality. While 2012 saw average quality stabilize, individual providers still had issues. Enterprises should keep a close watch on any transformational initiatives at their chosen provider(s) and ensure they have strong SLAs, including exit clauses in the event of severe problems.

The types of networking service that enterprises are purchasing are evolving. In most cases, a hybrid IP WAN, using a blend of MPLS, Internet VPNs and possibly Ethernet services, will be appropriate to meet different availability, performance and capacity needs at different enterprise locations. Leading service providers are now aligning their network service offerings by SLA (for example, gold, silver, bronze), rather than by technology.

In developed markets, access is likely to be predominantly Ethernet over copper or fiber, complemented by broadband, such as DSL and 3G or 4G cellular for rapid deployment and backup. High-capacity Ethernet access allows for bandwidth on-demand services, where capacity can be adjusted in hours, not weeks or months. New installations of classical leased line access, such as T1 and E1, are typically limited to emerging markets. A growing number of enterprise networks have application-fluent capabilities, with application visibility and/or WAN optimization, to reflect the increasing criticality of application performance for most enterprises.

With IP telephony well-established and the growing use of other IP voice applications (such as Microsoft Lync), IP voice trunks using SIP are growing in popularity; however, the complexities of voice regulation mean that there is a wide degree of variation between providers regarding the options for creating hybrid public switched telephone network (PSTN)/voice over IP (VoIP) networks.

With more enterprises turning to cloud services to deliver some of their applications, enterprise networks need to evolve. Almost all the network service providers in this Magic Quadrant have their own IaaS offerings, which are not considered in this research because they are addressed in their own Magic Quadrant. The desire to promote and add value to their own cloud services, by taking steps such as preconnecting their MPLS services to their data centers, has distracted network service providers from addressing the broader cloud networking needs of enterprises. However leading service providers are starting to recognize these needs and to develop offerings such as increasing the number of Internet gateways from their MPLS networks, thus allowing direct Internet access from VPN-connected branch sites, offering high-capacity Ethernet services preconnected to major hosting centers (not just their own data centers) and offering WAN optimization for cloud services. However, no global network service provider currently has the full range of networking for cloud services that enterprises will ultimately need.

LANs and Wireless LANs have become commodities and enterprises are seeking to have fewer providers in the delivery chain, especially when hosted unified communications is delivered over the WAN and LAN. As a result, enterprise demand for managed LAN services (including wireless LAN) is growing, especially when combined with managed WAN services to support distributed smaller offices, where local support might otherwise be difficult to arrange. Most of the providers in this Magic Quadrant offer these services, but the actual offerings vary considerably, from simple equipment resale and maintenance to full per-port, per-month utility service models.

The market for global network services is not just evolving in technological terms, but also in commercial terms. Improvements in SLAs include stronger consequences for breaking them, making them more inclusive (for example, site to site, including access lines), and automating the SLA reporting and credit process. In the current economic climate, enterprises are demanding and obtaining increased flexibility in their commitments in network service contracts. Some providers are experimenting with new utility service approaches, such as selling WAN services on a per-seat basis, with application-level SLAs. These abstracted services typically require a high degree of customization to meet the enterprise's particular needs, but can offer a service that provides the exact outcomes from the network that the enterprise requires.

Enterprise Communication Strategy

Enteprise communication strategy is one of the buzzwords in the Technology Industry. Every organization be it Banking, Insurance, Finance, Health, IT, Infrastructure, Construction, etc., needs to have a well defined communication strategy towards enabling seamless communication through various channels like Instant messaging, Email, Telephony, Intranet, Voicemail, Fax etc., With the IP Telephony adoption rate increasing with the leading vendors like Cisco, Avaya, Lucent are pushing very hard to sell their portfolio products in the enterprise communication. Unified communication and colloboration of all the channels is the next big happening in the enterprises. With almost all the larger corporations having migrated to IP Telephony (solely the benefit being reduced operational expenditure and also ease of Moves, Adds and Changes (MACs)) the focus is now on the advent of Unified communications trying to integrate / unify the different channels of communication like Instant messaging, Email, Telephony, Intranet, Voicemail, Fax etc., that would enhance the productivity with the ability of PRESENCE... Yes you get to know the presence status of the individual and also Unfied Mobility with the Single Number Reach no matter wherever you are.... Reachable Anywhere Anytime with one number !!! Will share more on later blogs !!!!

Port sector review

http://pmindia.gov.in/press-details.php?nodeid=1423
The communication from the PMO on the Public-Private partnership initiatives for the country's ports is glad news. As noted, the security clearance from the Ministries of Defence, Home and Envrionment has been the major bottleneck for such initiatives like dredging towards increasing the port capacity. I would like to highlight the need for having a defined Response Level Agreement for every ministry for such clearances that affect such large scale projects. We need to categorize the type of clearances and their priority level and set a response time for every Ministry. I would assume the PMO headed by the Prime Minster will review such administrative bottlenecks by having regular meetings with the concerned ministries. I would assume the government already has such governance structure with the steering committee in place to oversee the Projects. We have to review the governance structure at all levels and come up with new processes and methodologies to remove the unwanted bottlenecks/delays/red-tapism and make the roles(not the persons) responsible for the delays. Such a revamp of governance is the need of the hour to achieve faster processing of administrative tasks and better governance

Quotable quotes from visiting Chinese premier in India

NEW DELHI, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The following are some quotable quotes made by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his stay here Thursday, the second day of his three-day official visit to India.

-- "The relationship between China and India has experienced an unusual course of development over the past 60 years," Wen said when meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.

"However, friendly cooperation has always been the main stream, which is not only in the interest of both countries and peoples, but also helpful for the peace and development of the region and the world at large," he added.

"The two countries should grasp historical opportunity to boost political and strategic mutual trust and promote China-Indian relations to move forward along the track of lasting friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development."

"I hope my current visit is the one to carry on the past and open a way for future, which will further enhance our win-win cooperation."

-- "China and India agree there is enough space in the world for the development of both countries and enough areas for them to cooperate," Wen said when addressing the Indian Council of World Affairs.

"Such important consensus is deeply rooted in the time-honored cultural traditions of the two countries and our long history of exchanges," Wen said, adding: "It comes from our correct reading of the international situation and keen understanding of our national interests."
"We should seize the opportunities and lose no time in expanding and deepening our converging interests and actively advance strategic cooperation and practical cooperation."

"China stands ready to work with India to intensify exchanges and multi-level consultations between political parties and in the military field to enhance political and strategic mutual trust."
On the China-India boundary question, Wen said it was a "historical legacy" and its resolution requires patience.

"It will not be easy to completely resolve this question. It requires patience and will take a fairly long period of time," he said.

On the trans-border rivers, Wen described them as "a source of livelihood for the people living along the rivers."

"To properly preserve, utilize and manage the trans-border rivers is our shared responsibility," he said.

"China takes seriously India's concern about the trans-border rivers, and we are ready to further improve the joint working mechanism," he said.

"We will do whatever we can and do it even better," he said, adding: "All the upstream development activities by China will be based on scientific planning and study and will never harm downstream interests."

-- "A stable and prosperous India not only benefits the Indian people, but also is conducive to peace and development in the region and the world as a whole," Wen said when meeting with Indian President Pratibha Patil.

"China is willing to work together with India, from a strategic height and a long-term perspective, to push for more fruitful cooperation between the two sides in various fields including politics, economy, science and technology, and culture so as to realize common prosperity," he said.

-- "Progress can be achieved as long as we brave the difficulties and make unremitting efforts," Wen said when meeting with Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari.
"China and India are partners, not rivals," Wen said, adding: "I hope this can be a firm faith of both sides."

-- During his meeting with the president of the Indian National Congress (INC) party, Sonia Gandhi, Wen recalled the historic visit of then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to China in 1988, saying the visit had turned a new chapter of bilateral relations.

"History has proved that he was a man of vision," Wen said of Rajiv Gandhi.
The CPC is willing to strengthen exchanges with the INC, enhance mutual understanding and trust, and boost the development of the China-India ties, as well as the inter-party relations, Wen said.

Q1: 2010-11

2010 has been a very important year for all the Enterprises around the world. Almost all the developed countries in the world have been reeling under worst economic crisis. And 2009 is the peak of all for all the western countries. As you know, Greece, Spain and Portugal have already gone bankrupt. The US economy is believed to be slipping into double dip depression since the last 2 months June and July have shown steady decline in the growth in all sectors predominantly the manufacturing. Ironically the automobile sales for the last 2 months have been pretty good for the companies based out of US but most of sales for them has come from developing countries like China. The first quarter(Apr - June) for this financial year of 2010-11 is good one for all the India based Software companies. TCS, Infy, Wipro, HCL and Tech Mahindra have shown a impressive results. Among them TCS proved it's mettle by showing a whooping Rs.1900 Crores of Profit After Tax. A broad based growth has helped them sustain the march in the league of Five. Congratulations TCS!!!

Pakistan, China, Russia - Do you See a Connection ?

Is the recent massive flooding in Pakistan that has not witnessed in the past 80 years, the cloud burst and eventual mud sliding in China and the Raging Wild Fire in Russia is a after effect of Global Warming ? I tend to think this planet is getting it's temperature increasing. An increase of 4 degree Celsius will have most of the cities and towns on the shores under the water. An alarming green house gas effect... It's high time the industrialized countries should take punitive measures to bring down the CO emission to greater extent. Is there a way we can contribute as an individual to this planet... I would say growing a plant by everyone means a lot to this plant. Let us Save Our Earth Folks !!!!

IPL Row - Shashi Tharoor vs Lalit Modi

The recent controversy that is making headlines almost all the televisions and dailies is about the allegations of Lalit Modi of the involvement of MEA minister Shashi Tharor in the IPL kochi team. The initial investigations of the congress party on Shashi Tharoor who is known for his controversial tweeting has understood prima facie proof of misuse of power. With opposition parties vehmently opposing the continuance of Shashi Tharoor as a Minister is cause of worry of the Congress. The IT raids that followed after Lalit Modi publicly tweeted about this matter is actually a good one from the government side. IPL is a huge entertainment business and one could smell enormous amout of bribe and corruption and all sorts of nonsense in this IPL. With all the companies vying to make money(God forsake it's all public money.... Yeah the Public grow the private companies right) this matter needs to be fully investigated and I recommend the post of Lalit Mode (ie) the Chairman IPL be clipped of authoritative powers. There has to be some action against Tharoor though not to the extent of thowing not(I may not be shocked if that be the case). But some times that guy proves he is no longer a good politician..... May be good for some other Business(hahahahha)....

A Long Road For Obama and U.S.-India Ties - By Harsh V Pant

(From THE FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW) By Harsh V. Pant
Barack Obama says he regards India and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "as part of his family." "This is the reason why I decided to invite Manmohan Singh, who I admire a lot, on the first state visit of my presidency on Thanksgiving Day," Mr. Obama told prominent Indian-American leader Sant Chatwal recently. Indian media prominently carried this statement, and given the importance Indians tend to attach to family connections, much is being read into the symbolism of Obama's invite.

As the Indian prime minister prepares to be the first state guest of the Obama presidency on Nov. 24, both sides are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the visit lives up to the hype. Will all the pomp and ceremony be sufficient to gloss over widening policy differences between the two states? The visit comes at a time when there is a real concern that Indo-U.S. ties are adrift. Even a year after Mr. Obama's victory, Indians have yet to gain comfort with his presidency. India continues to pine for George W. Bush, whose single-handed reversal of the entrenched U.S. hostility towards India on Kashmir and nonproliferation makes him one of the most important U.S. presidents for India.

Indeed, the strengthening of U.S.-India relations might turn out to be one of the most significant achievements of the Bush administration's foreign policy. Whether he was preventing the non-proliferation lobby from wrecking the hugely significant civilian nuclear energy cooperation pact, or using his clout to bring recalcitrant nations in the Nuclear Suppliers Group around, Bush was ready to spend any amount of political capital to build a new partnership with India. For eight years, India occupied a pride of place in the strategic calculus of the US. India was wooed as a rising power. It was seen as a pole in the emerging global balance of power and as the primary actor in South Asia, de-hyphenated from Pakistan. And then it was given what it had long desired -- a de facto status as a nuclear weapon state.

On the other hand, Mr. Obama's tryst with India started on a wrong note. His tough stand against outsourcing during his presidential campaign and talk of a tax agenda punishing companies who "shop jobs overseas" did not go down well in India. The Indian Prime Minister apparently was not on the first list of leaders to receive a call from Mr. Obama after his victory, and Indian strategic elites, obsessed with symbolism in international diplomacy, thought that India would not be viewed as an important player. In the beginning, Mr. Obama only mentioned India when discussing how to sort out Kashmir to find a solution to America's Afghan troubles. The talk of a strategic partnership all but disappeared.

The immediate challenge of dealing with a growing Taliban threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan led the Obama Administration to adopt a very different set of priorities in which India seemed to have a marginal role. When Mr. Obama decided to make Asia the new pivot of his foreign policy, it didn't appear as though India had a place on his agenda. Instead, his administration flirted with the idea of G-2, a global condominium of U.S. and China whereby China could be expected to look after and "manage" the Asia-Pacific.

But the administration soon began to recalibrate its policy response toward India. The U.S. started to backtrack after it said it would play an active role in the resolution of the Kashmir conflict, saying that it was neither trying to "negotiate" a dialogue between India and Pakistan nor pressuring the two to resume bilateral talks. It also underlined that India's role was vital for the success of U.S. AfPak strategy, but none of India's inputs were accepted when the Obama administration formulated its strategy toward the region.

Though many Indians continue to believe that India and the U.S. share a common interest in tackling terrorism and extremism, the U.S. remains lukewarm to the idea of involving India in its larger strategy towards AfPak for fear of antagonizing Pakistan. India feels that it showed great restraint in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008, yet Washington seems intent on sidelining Indian concerns even as India is now being targeted directly in Afghanistan by the extremists for its reconstruction works. Gen. Stanley McChrystal's view that "increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions" is seen as indicative of U.S. attempts to marginalize India in its Afghanistan strategy. Meanwhile, Pakistan continues to drag its feet in bringing the masterminds of the Mumbai terror attacks to justice as demanded by both India and the U.S.

Hillary Clinton's visit to India in July aimed at re-stabilizing Indo-U.S. ties, and she managed to secure several concrete agreements. The two countries finalized a deal which allowed U.S. companies to sell sophisticated weapon systems to India. Space cooperation also got a boost with an agreement that facilitated the use of U.S. satellites and satellite components on Indian launch vehicles. As a framework for future talks, Ms. Clinton announced a six-pillared bilateral strategic dialogue covering issues ranging from defense and nonproliferation to education and agriculture, the most wide-ranging and comprehensive dialogue "that has ever been put on the table" between the two states. Yet as Ms. Clinton found during her talks in New Delhi on climate change, the divergence between the two democracies is growing on three critical issues of global significance -- climate change, global trade negotiations and non-proliferation. All three are priority areas for Mr. Obama and the next few months are likely to see much multilateral activity on these fronts.

With a new United Nations climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December, Washington and Delhi are trying to bridge their differences on how to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The United States wants developing countries such as India and China to control the emissions being produced by their rapidly growing economies, setting time-bound targets to this effect. Yet India argues that it has one of lowest emissions per capital. It maintains that the U.S. proposal would hurt its economic growth and wants the industrialized world to curb its pollution as well as fund new technologies in the developing world. Not only will it be politically difficult to agree on binding targets, it will also be near-impossible for the Indian government to abide by any such targets.

One of the major stumbling blocks in global negotiations on climate change has been the reluctance of the developed world to make adequate transfers of finance and to enable technology in the developing world. This would help the developing world reduce emissions without incurring as many out-of-pocket costs. India is seeking a bilateral arrangement with the U.S. on this issue with an understanding that it can serve as a model for an agreement between the developed and developing world at Copenhagen.

The World Trade Report 2009 has suggested that world trade may shrink by an unprecedented 10% this year. Given this bleak outlook, a revival of the Doha round of trade talks can send the right kind of signals to various stakeholders in the global economy. Both the United States and India have hinted that they are ready to re-launch efforts to reach a new global trade deal under the Doha negotiations.

The Doha talks collapsed last year after coming very close to an agreement primarily because of differences between Washington and emerging economies, led by India, over proposals to help farmers in poor nations. The U.S. and India have serious differences on the level of protection that can be given to farmers as and when the global market for farm products is opened up. The U.S. suggested that developing nations such as India need to provide greater market access for the talks to advance. India argues that it cannot compromise on food security and livelihood concerns even as the U.S. and the EU remain hesitant about scaling down their own agricultural subsidies. It is possible that India would be more willing to make unpopular concessions at home for the sake of collective economic gains, but this can happen only if the developed world provides reciprocal concessions by phasing out its own agricultural subsidies, which is highly unlikely given the current economic turmoil. Though the dismal state of the global economy and the need to revive global trade may prompt the U.S. and India to rethink their earlier strategies, domestic political constraints remain as strong as ever.
The G-8 statement on non-proliferation at the L'Aquila summit in July came as a major surprise for India. The statement committed the advanced industrial world to implementing on a "national basis" the "useful and constructive proposals" towards strengthening controls on enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) items and technology. It underscored the importance of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), insisting that those states that have not yet signed the treaty join. It was just last September that the Nuclear Supplier's Group (NSG) had agreed to grant India a clean exemption, thereby allowing nuclear exports of sensitive technology under safeguards to India.

The G-8 agreement on banning the ENR items to countries that are not signatories to the NPT effectively puts the future of the landmark U.S.-India nuclear deal of 2005 in jeopardy. While India will still be able to buy nuclear fuel and reactors from the G-8 or NSG countries, questions have arisen about the intentions of the Obama Administration regarding the future of the deal, and whether it would try to further dilute the bargain contained in the "India exemption" of the NSG waiver of last year.

The Obama Administration cannot make meaningful progress on its non-proliferation agenda unless it brings India into the fold of the global non-proliferation regime. With the administration trying push through the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, the trouble for India might just be beginning. Though Washington has made it clear that it will honor the commitments of the nuclear pact, the text remains open to interpretation, and Delhi fears that it will be a particularly restrictive reading of the text under the present political dispensation. For India, the fact that it is already negotiating with the Russians and the French mitigates some of the impact of this uncertainty. There is also hope that the American private sector will not allow any dilution of the text for fear of becoming less competitive, underscoring the conflicting commercial and non-proliferation agendas within the U.S. system.

In many ways, these developments underline the unique position that India holds in the global nuclear hierarchy. It is an outlier in every way. While the non-nuclear weapon states resent the special treatment granted to India by the U.S.-India nuclear pact, they are reluctant to allow the emergence of another nuclear state. The Bush Administration recognized the importance of resetting the terms of global nuclear discourse and of bringing India into the larger non-proliferation framework as a responsible nuclear state with an advanced nuclear technological base. Mr. Obama has decided to take a more traditional view of the problem, linking the issue of nuclear proliferation to the strengthening of old treaties. This has again put India on the defensive. A defensive India surrounded by two nuclear adversaries who have been colluding on nuclear issues for the last three decades is never going to be a part of the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation regime.

These underlying differences between the U.S. and India are now forcing a re-assessment of their relationship. While economic and social relations will retain their momentum, political frictions are likely to intensify in the near future. Burgeoning defense ties between the two notwithstanding, India's domestic politics as well as its desire for "strategic autonomy" make it highly unlikely that this country will ever emerge as a close ally of the U.S. in the traditional sense. If Americans are hoping to cultivate another ally, India, for sure, is not the right candidate on which to expend its energies. For all the hype about India and the U.S. being "natural partners," neither country is used to partnerships among equals. India remains too proud, too argumentative and too large a nation to offer itself as a junior partner to any state, including the U.S. How the two democracies adjust to this reality will shape the future of their relationship. A mere Thanksgiving invite to the Indian Prime Minister will not be of much help.
---
Harsh V. Pant teaches at King's College London and is the author, most recently, of Contemporary Debates in Indian Foreign and Security Policy (Palgrave Macmillan).

Decided to Blog daily

I have decided to blog continuously from now onwards. One blog atleast a day spanning from Business, Finance and Technology sphere. I would read from various sources of information and start put forth my thoughts on that.

India to grow at 6.5 per cent in 2010, says IMF

The World Economic Outlook a twice-yearly publication from International Monetary Fund syas that India's economic growth rate will advance to 6.5 per cent in 2010 on the back of robust domestic demand and rising private investment.

The outlook also says that “India's growth is expected to accelerate to 6.5 per cent in 2010 from 5.33 per cent in 2009, on the back of strong domestic demand.” It added, "In particular, the normalisation of financial conditions is expected to support a rebound of private investment, sustaining demand even as the fiscal stimulus wanes." The fact that the demestic demand is going to increase and the private investment is going to grow is a positive indication of economic recovery. I don't have much idea about the piece "Fiscal Stimlus" may be I think I will refer and explain in it my next blog.

The IMF added that economic recovery in Asia is faster than the elsewhere and that it is projected to grow by 5.75 per cent during 2010 compared to 1.25 per cent predicted for the G-7 economies. It said that China and India are bouncing back more quickly that the western world.

US appeases China

The remarks by the US President Mr.Barack Obama that Tibet is an integral part of india is totally unfortunate and is a clear indication of US's stance on Tibetian cause. I could understand that US doesn't want to confront china in a time when their country is on a economic recovery mode. The tibetian youth congress president has said that neither they are surprised by these remarks nor they expect any support from America for thier cause.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++ cHeErS sArAvAnAn+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

svictoryshanmugam

svictoryshanmugam

Beijing Unveils Traffic Plan

With less than 50 days to the Olympics, Chinese authorities on Friday announced widely-expected plans to almost halve its car population in the capital for a two month period.

Starting July 20th, drivers of even and odd-numbers license plates will only be able to drive on alternate days until September 20th, almost a month after the close of the Olympics and three days after the closing ceremony of the Paralympics.

Authorities expressed confidence these measures will produce clean air in time for the Games.
"We have the confidence and capability to guarantee the good air quality. We can promise the air quality can be improved to meet the previous target we set," said Du Shaozhong, spokesman from the city's Environmental Protection Bureau.

The measures are expected to take about 45% of Beijing's 3.29 million cars off the roads, including 300,000 government vehicles. It will also increase public transportation users by four million, said authorities.

Though the plan was widely anticipated, its duration could encourage Beijing's more affluent drivers to attempt to evade it by switching license plates or using alternate cars. That could lessen the impact of this attempt to reduce the city's car population.

Several multi-nationals have already purchased or made arrangements to purchase alternate license plates for their fleet to enable ease of movement, according to people familiar with the matter.

Beijing is struggling to clear the skies in time for the Olympics, despite a wide-ranging sweep of rules already in effect. These include tougher car emission standards and the closure of polluting factories across six Chinese provinces collectively larger in area than France, Germany and Italy combined.

Concerns over Beijing's still-poor air quality is causing some Olympians to consider only showing up for their events, skipping a lot of the festivities accompanying the Games. This week, for example, members of Australia's track and field contingent said they would stay in their Hong Kong training camp and skip the Games opening ceremony, partly because of "concerns of air quality," said spokesman Mike Tancred.

On Friday, Beijing's downtown noon skies were a dull grey and smelled faintly of smoke. Chinese readings rated air quality Level 3, or "slightly polluted," which is still on the higher end of readings usually recorded. Three weeks earlier on May 28 Beijing notched an unprecedented Level IV, or "Poor" pollution reading.

Nonetheless, Chinese authorities announced Thursday Beijing had 12 more blue sky days this year, compared to the same period the year before, and drops in major pollution indices such as concentrations of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter.
A similar discrepancy in public perception and official readings occurred last August, when authorities did a test-run of these traffic controls for a four-day period. Authorities said the measures caused significant improvements in air quality and cut emissions discharged by 5,815 tons, but many residents felt only traffic flow improved markedly

Fuelling turbulence

A. Ranganathan

In the 1970s, when oil prices shot up ten-fold, it was considered ‘black gold’. The fortunes of several countries with large reserves of oil soared. However, this black gold is turning the bottom-line of the aviation industry a deep red.

Some airlines have resorted to flying at slower speeds to get more miles per kilolitre while others have opted to keep some of their aircraft on the ground. Fuel is a major component in the direct operating cost of an airline. The more it costs, the deeper the hole it burns in an airline’s balance-sheet.

Modern jets use the concept of ‘cost index’ in their flight management computer system to work out the optimum performance of an aircraft. When getting the maximum mileage is the priority a low cost index is used.

A high cost index is used when fuel cost is cheap and other criteria outweigh the cost of the fuel. Airlines that own their aircraft would prefer to use the lowest cost index to maximise the distance covered with minimum fuel while airlines with leased aircraft would opt to go in for higher speeds.

Why is the operating cost high in India? The following are some of the reasons that contribute to increased fuel consumption:

Outdated and inefficient air traffic control system

Unlimited congestion at terminal area

High ground time with engines running

Inadequate maintenance schedules

Improper flight procedures

Overloading

Starting with the last factor, overloading is a bane of all airlines. The fuel burn calculations are based on weight and the prevailing atmospheric conditions. The greater the weight, the lower the altitude an aircraft flies at. The overzealousness to sell tickets at ridiculously low rates is adding to this problem.

Greater weight

Every ten passengers on board means an additional tonne in total weight. This, in turn, increases the fuel burn. Passengers are also the guilty party in the overload factor. Hand baggage, which is supposed to weigh a maximum of 10 kg, often weighs more than 20 kg. Ground staff often turn a blind eye to this violation, except with some airlines.

A disciplined flight crew can contribute immensely to fuel conservation. Unfortunately, discipline and professionalism is in short supply in India. When flights are conducted with managed speeds, as calculated by the flight management computer, one can expect minimum fuel burn.

However, there is a tendency among some of the flight crew to distrust the computer Air traffic control procedures in India leave a lot of room for improvement. The air distance from one city to another, particularly in the metro routes, is often increased by a large factor because of the ATC. When congestion is anticipated, aircraft should be advised well in advance.

Instead of sequencing the aircraft in a holding pattern, where each aircraft knows the position of the others and also its number in the landing sequence, the radar controlling resorts to what is called ‘tactical radar vectoring’. This results in a large increase in air miles.


More air-miles

Often, while approaching the Delhi airport, aircraft are sent on a northerly heading for a good 35-50 kilometres before turning east or west (depending on the runway in use) for another 75-90 km, before turning back towards the airport.

This additional distance of over 150 miles is a common occurrence in Delhi or Mumbai. The aircraft fuel consumption increases due to this and this is an excess that can be avoided by using proper procedures.

In a holding pattern, an aircraft will fly at what is called the ‘best clean speed’, giving the minimum fuel burn and drag. In the tactical radar vectoring scenario, aircrafts are often asked to reduce to low speed which require the use of flaps, increasing the drag and fuel burn in turn.

The sooner India switches over to the RNAV/RNP (Area Navigation/Required Navigation performance) procedures, the better for lowering fuel consumption. These procedures are satellite based and are independent of all ground based aids.

Airlines should consider rescheduling their flights. It is better to fly a higher load factor at the optimum cruise altitude than to fly at lower cruise altitudes.

At present, with so many airlines departing around the same time and in the same direction, many of them get slotted into altitudes that are well below the optimum. This results in higher fuel burn. Cheap tickets may make for a high load factor but they give very low yield. This goes against all norms of economics at the present level of fuel cost.

The time spent on ground with engines running is an area that ATC should optimise.

The authorities have to work out a procedure whereby an aircraft should be able to depart within a maximum of 10 minutes of taxiing.

With the onset of the monsoons and fuel on board becoming critical, it is in everyone’s interest that slot times are staggered and not bunched. Somebody has to act; if not, they will go under.

(The author is an airline pilot with 35 years experience.)

The iPhone 3G

The iPhone 3G
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)
Q: What's so great about the iPhone 3G?A: The iPhone 3G adds important features that were absent on the original iPhone. Those include support for AT&T's 3G networks, true GPS, and support for Microsoft Exchange server. It also will support third-party applications available through the upcoming iPhone apps store. Its design is different as well, but not by much.
Q: What's not great about it?A: We were hoping to see a few more features including multimedia messaging, voice dialing, video recording, and a landscape keyboard.
Q: So should I get it?A: If you want an iPhone but haven't bought one yet, this is the iPhone for you. If you already own an iPhone, the choice isn't as clear. But if you can afford to upgrade, you should. The added features will be worth it. We only stress that you should verify that AT&T has adequate 3G coverage in your area.

Q: Where can I buy the iPhone 3G?
A: It will be available only in Apple and AT&T stores. You'll also be available to get it at AT&T kiosks in shopping malls. It will not be available online.

Q: Wait, so I can't get it on the Apple or AT&T Web sites?
A: No, you'll have to get yourself to a store, which is more than inconvenient if you don't live near one.

Q: Can I still activate my phone using iTunes?
A: Unfortunately, you'll have to do that in an Apple or an AT&T store as well. You will not be able to take it home and do it there. Major bummer.

Q: Why are AT&T and Apple doing that?
A: We suspect that it's a way to crack down on iPhones that were purchased but were never activated on AT&T's network. By forcing you to activate the phone in a store, you'll be forced to sign up for AT&T service.

Q: Won't that create a mob scene on stores on July 11?
A: I expect that it will be pretty crazy that day. Though stores were mobbed last year, buyers had only to pay for their phone and get out. This year, however, they'll have to go through the entire process for credit approval, contract signing, and activation before they can leave. If you figure that each person will take at least 15 minutes to complete their transaction, then we should see some long, and slowly moving, lines.

Out with the old
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)Q: Will AT&T employees be working in Apple stores?A: Probably not. Apple has not released exact details, but we expect that the process will be similar to how stores like Best Buy handle cell phone activation now. It's likely that you'll be dealing with an Apple employee who will have access to AT&T's computer system.

Q: How much will the iPhone 3G cost?
A: This is one area of good news. While last year buyers paid up to $600 for their iPhones, the iPhone 3G will be significantly cheaper. The 8GB model will cost $199 and the 16GB model will cost $299, both with a two-year contract.

Q: Can I use an iPhone 3G with AT&T's Go Phone prepaid service?
A: Not at the moment. But this may happen in the future.
Q: But what's this I hear about the plans being more expensive?A: It's true that Apple and AT&T are changing the structure and pricing for the iPhone 3G plans. Unlike with the previous handset, you will have to select separate voice and data plans (they won't be combined). Voice plans, which are the same for all AT&T handsets, range from $39.99 to $79.99 per month, depending on the available minutes. Unlimited data plans will be $30 for consumers and $45 business users.

As a result, the cheapest monthly cost for an iPhone user will be $69.99 for unlimited data, plus 450 anytime minutes and 5,000 nights and weekends. That's $10 more than what current iPhone users pay for comparable services.
Q: The original data plan came with 200 free text messages. How much text messaging do the new data plans include?A: The details aren't known yet.

Q: Will the new $30 and $45 a month data plans offered for the 3G iPhone be the same as the standard data plans for other AT&T smartphones?
A: Not necessarily. AT&T says it is still working out the details and will have more information closer to July 11 when the phones go on sale.
Q: I heard that people who already have a first-generation iPhone have to turn it in to an Apple or AT&T store if they want the 3G phone. Is that true?A: No, but AT&T is giving people who bought their first-generation iPhone on or after May 27 the opportunity to exchange it before August 1. AT&T and Apple will refund the difference in price but 3G iPhone users will have to sign a two-year new contract and choose a new plan. If you go this route, don't forget to erase your personal data.

Q: If I keep my current iPhone, will I miss out on all the new features?
A: Through the iPhone 2.0 software update you'll get a lot of new goodies including the third-party applications and the Exchange server support. Yet, you will miss out on the 3G and GPS.


In with the new

(Credit: Apple)
Q: I already have a comparable smartphone from AT&T and a two-year service contract. Can I buy the 3G iPhone for the $199 price and simply restart my contract?
A: It depends on when you started your initial AT&T contract. In order to get the $199 price tag, you have to meet AT&T's upgrade eligibility criteria. We'll know more on that later.

Q: Let's say I bought my iPhone last year and I want the 3G iPhone. Can I give my old iPhone to my sister or sell it on eBay?A: No, once an existing iPhone user activates service for an iPhone 3G, their first-generation handset will be unusable as a phone. You won't be able to replace it with another AT&T SIM card and use it to make calls. This also means that you can't buy an old iPhone on eBay and expect to activate it on AT&T's network. You can, however, use it as a media player and a Wi-Fi device for browsing the Web.

Q: Will people living in areas without native AT&T coverage be able to buy a iPhone 3G?
A: No, anyone buying a iPhone 3G must live in an area where AT&T provides coverage. Since the phones will be activated right in the store, people won't be able to leave the store without activating the phone for service in area where AT&T is offered.

Q: Will the SIM come preinstalled this time?
A: Yes the SIM is already installed and is not meant to be removed or replaced with other AT&T SIM cards (though it is physically possible to do so). On the other hand, Apple will include a SIM removal tool in the box.

Q: Do I have to be in the store to get software updates or to sync it with iTunes?
A: No, updates and syncing with iTunes can be done right from your home computer. You can also buy applications from the Apps Store from your computer.

Q: Can I use the iPhone 3G overseas?
A: As a quad-band GSM phone with support for three 3G bands, you'll be able to use the new iPhone all over the world. Just remember that the phone will be locked to AT&T so you won't be able to use another carrier's SIM card. And if you're a frequent globe-trotter, you should ask about AT&T's international plans to avoid nasty surprises on your bill.

Q: Will the iPhone ever come to other carriers in the United States?
A: There is a chance it could come to T-Mobile, but it won't be for a long time. AT&T is said to have a five-year lock on the iPhone (now through 2012) but other reports indicate that its monopoly will be up in 2010. Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that Apple will ever develop a CDMA version for Sprint or Verizon Wireless.

Market Capitalization - Definition

Market Capitalization

The total dollar market value of all of a company's outstanding shares. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying a company's shares outstanding by the current market price of one share. The investment community uses this figure to determining a company's size, as opposed to sales or total asset figures.

Frequently referred to as "market cap".

If a company has 35 million shares outstanding, each with a market value of $100, the company's market capitalization is $3.5 billion (35,000,000 x $100 per share).

The stocks of large, medium and small companies are referred to as large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap, respectively. Investment professionals differ on their exact definitions, but the current approximate categories of market capitalization are:

Large Cap: $10 billion plus
Mid Cap: $2 billion to $10 billion
Small Cap: Less than $2 billion