TMA32 - Ringing in the changes

Feeling fearless? If so, the telecommunications industry's premier conference may be for you. This year's TMA32 conference, billed as featuring "virtually all the major players addressing the UK voice, data and image communications market," is an event for those keen to explore the boundaries of telecoms technology. Speakers include former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon. Peter Sissons will chair a Question Time-style debate, and those wishing to quiz BT chairman Sir Iain Vallance about the size of their phone bills following his 'View from the top' speech will have to run it by the session's chairman BBC Breakfast News presenter Justin Webb. "Only the brave make predictions about the communications industry," said Equant Network Services' brave executive VP Laurence Huntley, who is making a speech at TMA32 entitled: 'Business network needs five years from now'. TMA32 comprises two concurrent events in three venues - the Brighton Conference Centre and two hotels located along the Brighton sea front, the Metropole and the Grand. The Grand will provide catering facilities for up to 450 diners at the black tie Communications Industry dinner on Monday evening. Tuesday evening sees the more informal Gala dinner at the Brighton Thistle Hotel will take place, with entertainment by the London Community Gospel Choir and the Band of the Royal Marines. Among the participants in the three-day event are Alcatel, BT, Cisco, Ericsson, Lucent, Nortel, Oracle, Philips, Racal, Siemens and Vodaphone. The conference will have 750 delegates and more than 20,000 punters are expected to attend. Food for thought TMA's John Foreman said: "People like TMA and they like Brighton. The show has grown during the 30 years since the TMA was more of a club. These days the venue has the ambience of an Olympic village." Foreman pointed out that TMA32 is a serious event and insisted that, according to a sample of visitors polled at the event last year, business worth more than £150m was concluded during the three show days. "We've moved with the times and come a long way since the days when we could be considered a niche event," Foreman said. Voice and data integration is yet again set to be the main theme of the show. So what constitutes integration this year? The conventional view is that if you have a data network you buy in a bit of voice kit, and if you have a voice network you bolt on a bit of data and everything's integrated at a stroke. This is nonsense, maintains Nortel international marketing director Lesley Hansen. "Voice and data integration needs to be planned and built properly. It's not what you buy that counts, it's what you do with it and how you go about it," she said. Hansen's vision is clear: "What integration is about is customer satisfaction. Yes, you're liable to get two networks for the price of about one-and-a-half, but the real score is the potential for new applications. "Companies can get to know their customers' habits, likes and dislikes - advantages that have traditionally been available only to small enterprises are now there for big business too,"she said. Adorning the Metropole's Ambassador suite will be a Siemens banner bearing the slogan: "Convergence - creating a universe of one". Siemens marketing communications manager, Mike Sylvester, said the company will be exhibiting call centre and video-conferencing technology. Siemens is launching its convergence strategy and will run 45-minute seminars at 11pm and 3pm on each of the three days. The usual suspects The Metropole will also play host to Cisco where, said PR manager Helen O'Hanlon, the company is to display what used to be called Celsius, renamed CCN (Cisco Communications Network). This is a voice-over IP (VoIP) system that enables users to get their fax, e-mail and telephone together on one line. A cut-down version, called Soft Phone, is available for small to medium-sized businesses at a reduced price. Following its acquisition of Amtiva, Cisco will also be showing off its voice and data convergence technology, as well as a demonstration of IPTV - television with internetworking Protocol attached. Along with a strong showing from ADSL vendors, Alcatel marketing director, Neil Moss, will demonstrate the company's recently announced 'transparent convergence', along with web-enabled call centre technology and Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSL). "What you get with ADSL is a pair of copper wires running between a box at home and a box at the exchange. That takes you out of analog and into digital, with 2Mbps to 6Mbps coming in and 800K to 2Mbps going out. That's fast if you're used to a conventional phone line," said Moss. Alcatel will also present its views on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which are set to be the next big thing in corporate communication, according to Moss: "It's proven technology and corporates are demanding more of them." However, Moss believes the key issue examined at the conference will be service level agreements (SLAs). "We work in about 130 countries and service agreements were a nightmare - either you write one for each country or you finish up with a document that's about a foot and a half thick. We've worked on this for about two years and I think we've now refined the whole thing to a clear four pages," he said. Converging issues Moss conceded that voice and data convergence will be the main theme of the moment: "It's not just about cost savings - it's about infrastructure. If you do it right, then you become more flexible and you approach your marketing differently because you can offer more products." The key growth areas that will be discussed at TMA32, according to BT's press officer Simon Gordon, are mobiles and the internet. BT will be showing off IP devices that assemble voice into data packets, and hopes to have on display VPN facilities such as those that enable a user to view a website while using the same phone line to make voice calls. So what do the smaller exhibitors think? Metrodata, a network equipment developer, employs about 50 staff and sales manager John Stratford said that his company would be exhibiting nothing that displayed any voice and data convergence. In fact, it would not be exhibiting at all. "We don't want to bore anyone so we're going to TMA just to say thank you to our customers for whom we'll provide hospitality," he said. Which brings us to the subject of competitions and freebies. Most marketing departments contacted by Network News indicated that there would be none as they had no desire to become inundated with balloon hungry anoraks. But marketing director Nina Davies at Eurotel assures us it will be dishing out a limited number of credit card-sized CDs playable on any suitably equipped audio-visual receptacle. But fun gadgets aside, John Foreman assures us that the next two years will be crucial in the development of telecommunications and TMA32 will have a key role in priming managers for those changes. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Monday 29 November - Chris Patten, European commissioner: 'How globalisation changes trading patterns and the implications for business.' - Vivienne Peters, director regulatory affairs, American Express and Nick White, head of technology and telecommunications, Unilever: 'How to tackle the telecommunications revolution.' Tuesday 30 November - Sir Iain Vallance, chairman, BT: 'How BT deals with the new competitiveness and new partners'. This will examine its upcoming alliance with AT&T, new technologies and a wave of opportunities from the internet and e-commerce. - Martyn Hart, chairman, TMA: 'How the telecommunications industry faces up to its responsibilities.' Wednesday 1 December - Rob Fisher, managing director of operations, Cable & Wireless: 'What carriers are doing to encourage and facilitate change?' - Laurence Huntley, executive vice president of marketing, Equant Network Services: 'What users will be demanding by 2005.' WINING AND DINING Monday 29 November Grand Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton 3BN 3HF, Phone: (01273) 321 188, Fax: (01273) 202 694 Communications Industry Dinner: Black tie, Guest speaker: Buzz Aldrin. Tuesday 30 November Thistle Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton 3BN 9YG, Phone: (01273) 206 700, Fax: (01273) 820 692 Gala Dinner: Informal Entertainment: London Community Gospel Choir and the Band of the Royal Marines. For bookings and information contact Teresa Cole on (01372) 631 000 or e-mail tcole@tmaventures.com. FREE SEMINARS - Data and voice integration theatre: A three-day programme of commercial presentations, all of which include question and answer slots. - E-commerce centre: A series of seminars and demos on e-commerce via digital television. - Communications skills fair: Job market billed as a "must visit for thousands of attendees". - Siemens convergence strategy: 45-minute seminars at 11am and 3pm every day. FURTHER INFORMATION TMA32 is open between 10am and 5pm daily from 29 November to 1 December. Admission to the Exhibition is free. For more information on TMA 32, contact John Foreman or Carolyn Alcock on (01372) 361 000, fax: (01372) 818 888; e-mail: tmav@tmaventures.co.uk or go to the website at www.tmav.com.