Chicago, April 9 -- The 2008 IP Possibilities Conference & Expo, jointly produced by NTCA and OPASTCO, opened this morning to a record crowd of nearly 500 attendees. There were several key themes that emerged as critical elements in preparing rural service providers for the future. Of note, consumers are increasingly seeking more upstream bandwidth, telcos need to effectively manage their networks and it’s a necessity for operators to establish partnerships.

John Rose, president of OPASTCO, gave opening comments, and suggested that there will be little growth in traditional services and that operators must increasingly look to monetize their IP pipes. “One Exabyte DVD video would take approximately 50,000 years to watch, and half an Exabyte of data is added to the Internet everyday. It is obvious that bandwidth needs will grow, and we must all be looking to fiber to the home [FTTH].”

The session continued with John Schluter, Microsoft senior director, communications sector North America, who discussed many of the service disrupters, including the effects of Napster on the music industry, Amazon and eBay on the merchandisers, and VoIP on traditional landline services. “You as service providers need to figure out where you fit in,” said Schulter. “The good news is that customers would prefer to buy from a single source -- their trusted provider.” He went on to suggest that partnerships will be key in the operator’s ability to provide the services consumers are demanding, concluding with a quote from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, “ ‘This converged world will require new forms of partnerships.’ ”

Following Schluter was Michael Koons, vice president, systems engineers for Cisco Systems Inc. Koons brought some perspective to future bandwidth needs: “In 2010, bandwidth for 20 homes will generate more traffic than the entire Internet in 1995.” The inference, of course is that TV, Internet, gaming, photo/video sharing, and several other applications will require unprecedented amounts of bandwidth. He went on to suggest that the network of the future must do a better job of delivering traffic as customers are less tolerant of seeing errors on their large screen TVs.

Next was an industry analyst panel titled “Consumer Bandwidth: How Much Is Enough?” The panel was moderated by Joe Savage, president of the Fiber to the Home Council, and the presenters included Vince Vittore, a senior analyst in Yankee Group’s Enabling Technologies Service Provider group; Gary Kim, editor in chief of IP Business and ChannelVision; and Tim McElligott, editor in chief of Billing & OSS World magazine.

The session started with a video from the FTTH council which provided an interesting perspective on future bandwidth needs. While no one directly answered the question, most felt that more bandwidth would be needed in the future, and that all costs could not be passed directly to the consumers. Vittore commented, “Telcos have a distinct advantage over cable in that it is easier to provide upstream bandwidth.” He went on to suggest that key drivers of increased upstream bandwidth include sharing of photos and video, as well as teleworkers. “Even if you work in an office, chances are you still do some work from home,” said Vittore. Gary Kim added that consumers are willing to pay for noncommodity services, and that unfortunately broadband is seen as a commodity. Look for ways to enhance the user experience and consumers will pay for it.

The opening general session wrapped up with Martin Taylor, vice president of product management and technology strategy for MetaSwitch. Taylor spoke about the inevitable transition from a TDM network to an IP network, and that having a network migration strategy is critical to operator survival. While video and other applications are important, voice (and specifically VoIP) is a critical consideration to that strategy.

After the morning general sessions concluded, attendees had the opportunity to mingle over lunch. The exhibit hall was packed with attendees, speakers and nearly 60 exhibiting companies showcasing new products, services and IP technologies.

The afternoon breakout sessions included such topics as “FMC: New Hardware or Hype?”, “Upstream Backbone Connections: What Are My Choices?” and “Video Content: Three Screen Strategies.”

The stage has been set for a great show, so look for more coverage from Chicago tomorrow!