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Driving efficiency beyond the network – Neil Tagare's call for bandwidth swapping

Tony Chan | July 25, 2008 | 0 Comments

While the industry has focused on making its infrastructure more energy efficient, one area that has not exactly been discussed is how to make the industry itself more efficient. There are some examples of this trend, such as infrastructure sharing by mobile operators, and Nokia Siemens Network’s development of a multi-operator RAN solution, but for the most part, the industry rarely talks about how to operate more efficiently as a whole.

Ironically, one of the first persons to put this fact into words is also one of the pioneers of the global fiber networking industry.

This is one of the main objectives quoted by Neil Tagare, the creator of the FLAG system and the now defunct Project Oxygen, for his project BuySellBandwidth, which offers an online platform for carriers to list and search bandwidth for sale and wanted. Instead of establishing a site for operators to find new buyers and do more business, Tagare instead points out that one of the site’s main benefits will be to drive efficiency in the telecommunications industry.

“I believe that the current business model is extremely inefficient. Coupled with the current economic climate around the world, the carriers are really hurting,” Tagare wrote on his blog post announcing the launch of the site. “With that in mind, I have decided to launch http://www.buysellbandwidth.com/ with the humble yet optimistic goal of doubling the efficiency of this industry in a short timeframe.”

One of the key roles of the site will be to re-enable bandwidth swapping, a practice that Tagare says despite the bad rap following Global Crossing’s collapse, is ideal for the industry today.

“There is nothing wrong with swapping. Swapping is good for the industry as it helps them reduce their Capex,” he asserted. “With huge capacities coming online with the launch of every new cable, swapping becomes paramount to increasing industry efficiencies. As long as carriers use legal accounting methods to track these transactions, swapping is completely legal and must be the foremost option of conducting business.”

He goes on to opine that swapping capacities can now be used beyond the traditional submarine cable systems market, but should be considered for exchanges of “fiber circuits with satellite circuits or WiMax, etc.”

“Suddenly, swapping could become an efficiency tool for the global telecom industry no matter whether you are a wireless operator or a long distance carrier or a Metro services provider,” he said.

FOOTNOTE: I did inquire about driving efficiency in the industry in the form of virtualized networks to one virtual network operator about six months ago, but didn’t get much headway. Hopefully, with a voice like Tagare’s in support, this concept will gain greater traction amongst the world’s operators.

Read my story for CommsDay about Tagare’s new project here