Telecom industry developers have big plans for Java
All of the hype around Java has found ready ears in the telecommunications industry. Telephone companies, cable TV operators, and direct broadcast satellite companies are interested in using Java in their central offices for billing and provisioning, as well as for rolling out new information services to consumers. At the JavaOne conference, a number of leading developers for the telecommunications industry talked about how they plan to incorporate Java into their projects.
“We see a strong trend toward Internet-enabling almost all of the applications we are developing for our customers,” said Leigh Cuthbertson, a senior account consultant at Evolving Systems (www.evolving.com). “Most of these are intranet applications for internal use by the telecom companies. For example, a service application could be used by a mom-and-pop reseller.”
In the past, telecom operators were content to offer a few core services, but telecom deregulation has prompted companies to fight for a bigger piece of the pie. “Many of our customers are going beyond pipeline carriers,” Cuthbertson said. “Traditionally they were happy providing T1 service, but over the last couple of years, they have realized they have left money on the table in doing that. Some have started offering Internet services. A few have gone beyond that toward offering new services.”
New services
Cuthbertson sees a variety of ways in which Java applications could be used to offer new services. Medical doctors could verify insurance eligibility for a patient. Consumers at home could order pay-per-view movies from their Java-powered set-top box.
Evolving Systems already has put together a system for a phone company that allows the customer service rep to provide ISDN services using a Web server connected to a secure intranet. Cuthbertson sees a day when customers will be able to offer their own services, “The phone companies feel that they can increase customer benefits, and in the long haul, they won’t have to have as many service reps.”
Java also will be important in formatting information for people on the fly. For example, the Business Partners Program at Environment Systems Research Inc. (www.esri.com) has developed a Java utility that allows people to find something on a map. ESRI is working on integrating this mapping technology into a number of online phone books. It will enable a consumer to click on an entry and retrieve its number, address, and geographic location.
Java is finding a niche in just about every development team at GTE Data Services (www.gte.com). Its 3,000-plus programmers do the development for GTE and some outside companies. Larry Hagerty, senior systems analyst for the group, said, “After doing a quick survey, we realized that virtually every project team at GTE could use Java. Now we are building class libraries and looking at every Java related development.”
Hagerty believes one big application of Java technology will be in a fully automated billing inquiry system that lets customers check their account balance and use whenever they like.
Before Java, there was a feeling in the industry that there was not much room for the small player to add value and that they were getting squeezed out. The arrival of Java, and not simply the Internet, has opened the door for smaller companies, Hagerty notes. “Instead of the little guys getting forced out, there is now more room for them.”
Strategic Technology Resources (www.str.com) is working on using Java to let customers reconfigure and maintain their own data. “Any time you bring someone else in to enter a form, you introduce clumsiness and mistakes,” said Larry Podmolik, STR’s director of technology. People will pay a premium if they’re allowed to configure the information for themselves, Podmolik said.
Java will be important because it makes it easy to upgrade a telephone system, and telephone companies do not want to get locked into old services. “Java is an essential technology [because] new services come and go so quickly. Before Java, if you had to put new services out in front of the customer, you would never be able to keep it up every day. With Java, you can keep up to date with new technologies.”
Telcos’ take on Inferno
One hot topic in the telecom world is Inferno, the Java-like language being developed by AT&T spinoff Lucent Technologies. But none of the telecom panelists believe that it will go anywhere unless Lucent promotes it more. “The thing they have not done is just put it out there,” Podmolik said. “If they want to make a run at the markets, they will have to put it out in front of a whole bunch of programmers and have it generate its own grass roots support.”
