“It takes a while to turn a moving juggernaut: organisations are simply unable to wait for the industry's 'big boys ' to deliver their network upgrades, leaving the playing field wide open for more agile service providers that have already made investments and gained vital experience.
Businesses tend to be regarded by operators as a cash cow. However, most businesses do not want to be stuck with an outmoded service. Increasingly they are demanding the ability to work with far greater freedom, aided by new technologies and services that are relevant to the business needs of the 21st century. I'm not sure that the bigger players are flexible enough to deliver this just yet. Companies like AlwaysON, by contrast, already are."
AlwaysON implemented its next generation network in 2000 and say they were first to market with an hosted IP Telephony service in 2002.
"Implementing the technology is just the start," added Zaremba. "The real challenge is creating services and a delivery experience to meet the needs of demanding customers. When their technology finally reaches the right page, it will be the next hurdle for those 'big boys' to face."