Bill Gates from GenevaBill Gates Points to Software as Vital To Telecommunications Industry's Health
Microsoft Chief Software Architect Announces Mobile Web Services
Initiative With Vodafone; Showcases Software and Solutions to
Meet Customer Demands and Fuel Industry Growth
GENEVA, Oct. 13 /CNW/ -- In a keynote address to the telecommunications
industry today, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill
Gates described how software is the key to enabling a new generation of
telecommunication business offerings that will help meet increasing demands of
customers and present service providers with an opportunity to drive new
revenue streams. During his keynote address to more than 3,000 delegates at
ITU Telecom World 2003, Gates showcased Microsoft's technology applications
and opportunities for telecommunications companies worldwide and announced a
new initiative with Vodafone Group plc to develop enabling technology
specifications for mobile Web services.
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Voicing optimism about the future of telecommunications, Gates offered a
glimpse of the software-powered services that he said would help empower
customers by allowing them to connect to information and services, when and
where they want. The Microsoft leader said that developers, technology
providers and service providers can harness the power of Web services to
create productivity tools for IT workers as well as communications tools that
help connect people's lives.
As such, Microsoft's work and involvement in the many standards
initiatives throughout the telecommunications industry is significant, Gates
said, to help increase ease of use and near-term profitability for the
millions of developers worldwide.
"Microsoft continues to play an active role in supporting open standards
and interoperability in the telecommunications industry. This, combined with
our push for unified developer tools and an open execution environment, will
enable Web services to flourish," Gates said.
He elaborated on the need for industry standards, suggesting that they
would do the following:
* Foster a larger ecosystem for companies to participate in industry
opportunities
* Improve time to market for products that interoperate
* Drive higher volumes faster, thereby reducing costs and stimulating
greater adoption
* Allow innovation to differentiate and enhance features and performance
while ensuring interoperability
"Building a healthy ecosystem for the industry is crucial to driving the
usage of this new generation of offerings -- which in turn will drive higher
average revenue per user for the service providers," Gates said.
In a focal point of the keynote address, Gates and a representative from
Vodafone jointly announced an initiative to develop enabling technology
specifications for mobile Web services, designed to extend mobile services to
the PC world and offer application developers new opportunities.
The two companies also shared an outline of their vision to help create
mobile Web services standards that would utilize existing standard Extensible
Markup Language (XML)-based Web services architecture to expose mobile network
services, such as location, billing, mobile messaging and authentication, to
the broadest audience of developers. Advancing Web services into the mobile
space will enable new market opportunities and business models for mobile
network operators and developers. This collaboration on mobile Web services
will accelerate the convergence between PC and mobile applications and
services, both companies said.
Demonstrating Microsoft's commitment to the telecommunications industry,
representatives from several of the company's business units also presented
their new software solutions and successes at the ITU show:
* The Microsoft TV team announced plans for the development of a new
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) delivery solution designed to
enable cable and telecommunications operators to more easily and
efficiently offer improved and next-generation TV services over
existing broadband networks. This initiative will bring together
state-of-the-art technologies from Microsoft and other industry
leaders
in an integrated, end-to-end solution that will support the full range
of pay-TV services while scaling to millions of TV subscribers.
Microsoft TV announced it is working with Bell Canada and Reliance
Infocomm of India to create and test new services for consumers using
the IPTV solution.
* The Microsoft Mobile Devices Division and Orange unveiled the latest
phone in the Orange Signature device range, the SPV E200. Featuring
familiar Windows Mobile(TM) software, the SPV E200 is the world's
first
Windows Mobile-based Smartphone with integrated camera and
Bluetooth(R), designed to give customers one-touch access to key
services and exclusive Orange services, and makes full use of the
Orange intelligent network.
* The Windows team announced an enhancement to the wireless networking
service in Windows designed to make Wi-Fi hot spots easier to deploy
and use, and more secure. Microsoft wireless provisioning services
(WPS) technology is a standards-based and integrated platform that
enables wireless Internet service providers to easily provision and
manage their Wi-Fi hot spots. WPS also allows users of Windows(R) XP
to easily detect and connect to Wi-Fi hot spots via a seamless signup
process, and it enables more secure Wi-Fi hot spot access without the
need for browser-based deployment.
* In the Communications Sector, Swisscom AG and Microsoft are
cooperating
to bring to market enterprise mobile data solutions that combine the
power of Windows and the Microsoft(R) .NET Platform with the
convenience and reliability of wireless broadband services from
Swisscom Eurospot and Swisscom Mobile.
In addition, Microsoft will announce the availability of the Microsoft Solution for Hosted Exchange, a multiservice platform that allows service providers to build, deploy, deliver and manage rich e-mail communication services for consumers as well as small and medium-sized businesses.
* The Xbox team will announce additional global partners for the Xbox
Live(TM) service, the ultimate high-speed gaming arena and the first and only integrated community sharing in exhilarating, always-
connected broadband gaming experiences.
About ITU Telecom World 2003
ITU Telecom World 2003 is being held at Geneva Palexpo in Geneva,
Switzerland, Oct. 12-18. Microsoft products, partners and solutions will be showcased in Hall 4 at Stand 4100.