IBM to aid in ASEAN's telecom future

New Telecom Center of Excellence of IBM in Malaysia will help ASEAN’s telecom industry to address the rising challenges.

IBM today announced the opening of the ASEAN Telecom Center of Excellence (CoE) to accelerate telecommunications solution development and streamline product delivery to help ASEAN telecommunication service providers compete more effectively in the fast-changing market.

The center will bring together cutting-edge technical skills, specialized offerings and industry best practices to meet the rising challenges in ASEAN’s industry.

“To sustain growth in this competitive industry landscape, service providers must offer customers a more positive and differentiated user experience while reducing complexity and cost,” said Deepak Koshy, Leader, IBM ASEAN Telecom Center of Excellence.

Located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- the ASEAN Telecom CoE leverages IBM’s globally-integrated network of capabilities and partnerships. The CoE offers a range of new telecommunications software solutions based on IBM’s Service Provider Delivery Environment 3.0 framework, as well as hardware, services and business partner applications. Clients will include telecommunication operators, network equipment suppliers, independent software vendors and extended service providers.

According to research firm IDC, the combined telecommunication services market of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, would reach US$35.7 billion in 2009. Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand were expected to show modest growth at a 4% to 6% range. Vietnam and Indonesia, each with double-digit expansion rates, would demonstrate higher growth as they are at the early stages of the technology adoption curve and currently addressing the digital divide in their markets.