In Asia, It Is The Quality Of The Connection That Counts

What is the connection between furniture design and communication network design? Charles Eames, a well-known furniture designer (amongst other things) once famously said, “Eventually everything connects—people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.”

Doesn’t the same apply to communication networks? There is little point in having high-performance “nodes” or end-point capability if the connection to these points is relatively low performance because this will result in an unreliable, low quality network.

In Asia, the driving force to connect is strong—millions of people understand the power that is unleashed when connecting and communicating via the Internet either through wired or wireless infrastructure. However, supply and demand factors often kick-in, attempting to reduce costs as volumes pick up. For instance, you can witness the very low average revenue per user (ARPU) data for India’s wireless networks; however, with this increasing commoditization comes a trade-off: a lower average performance in return for lower price points. Often the first element of a network to suffer commoditization is the basic physical layer infrastructure. There is a danger that in parts of Asia, as we rush to connect, we will accept lower quality networks than in other parts of the world.

A “good-enough, average” approach to infrastructure may be sufficient for a competitive domestic market, but where there is aspiration for a company or even country to compete on a global scale then average is not good enough. High quality connections promote global competitiveness. There is no doubt that many countries within Asia fully intend to compete on the global stage so it is time for us to improve the quality of our network connections.

Vendors play an important role in this mix. Vendor awards that focus on total quality of service to customers rather than simply market share are important. Recently CommScope was named to MIS Asia’s annual index of the world’s Top 100 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) vendors and service providers.

A select panel of judges comprising of technology practitioners, academicians and consultants evaluated companies, and the judges selected those with the highest scores. CommScope was listed among the Global 75—companies accepted by the judges as world leaders in their field in terms of reach, operational and financial might, and influence on the ICT industry.

According to MIS Asia, CommScope made the list for several reasons including the company’s success on the global stage, specializing in providing various hardware for wireless and wireline networks, and routinely winning awards for customer care and technology performance.

Charles Eames was right;the quality of the connection does matter.

Are you ready to improve the quality of your network connections?