NTT and PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) announced the launch of the APAC Telecom Innovation Initiative (ATII), a joint research and development initiative intended to support the development of new network services for the Asia Pacific region leveraging virtual infrastructure technologies.
The new joint initiative will focus on establishing technical studies and proof of concepts (PoCs) targeting the requirements for new network services with the advent of virtualisation technology. NTT and Telkom Indonesia plan to expand the initiative through agreements with additional partners, including other service providers, who share the aims of the initiative.
The companies noted that APAC service providers are faced with a number of common issues such as sustainability due to natural disasters and traffic demands complicated by uneven population distribution and growth, particularly in island nations. To help address these challenges ATII will propose new services and technologies tailored for the APAC region.
The ATII will also seek to accelerate innovation and create new markets leveraging information and communications technology (ICT). The initiative will focus on delivering sustainable development through collaboration and promotion with partners across the region to support the development of APAC service providers and countries.
More specifically, taking into account the APAC market environment joint technical studies and PoCs will be conducted with a focus on the speed and availability characteristics of virtualisation infrastructure designed to enable flexible and efficient network services. Initially, three projects have been established:
1. High value-added network services.
2. Server platform virtualisation.
3. Flexible access network virtualisation.
ATII will immediately start joint technical studies and plans to release whitepapers on the identified requirements, specifications and PoCs results. ATII will also liaise and share its findings with the relevant standards organisations and industrial alliances with the aim of advancing and expanding its activities.
In the future, ATII intends to perform field trials with participating service providers and partners in emerging markets that will lead to the creation of commercial services.
