Rebirth Of The Videophone.

Washington DC, 3 March 2004

Rebirth Of The Videophone.

NetworkAdvantage™ participated in the successful demo of a proposed Public Switched Videophone Network (PSVN) at Satellite 2004. The NetworkAdvantage™ software and management system was used at the core of the network to establish links over satellite between the ‘Gateways’. Visitors at Satellite 2004 were able to experience making calls to a similar payphone in Oahu.

Rebirth Of The Videophone

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(source: Hawaii Pacific Teleport)

Visitors to the Advantech AMT booth at Satellite 2004 were able to make videophone calls via ISDN and satellite to a similar videopayphone on Oahu island, Hawaii. This is the precursor to the roll out in the Asia-Pacific region of a Public Switched Videophone Network (PSVN) which will use a DAMA (Demand Assigned Multiple Access) Satellite system as the delivery platform.

The launch of a PSVN in the Asia-Pacific region is the brainchild of Vince Waterson, VP of Business Development at Hawaii Pacific Teleport (HPT), who said “Asia is now an incredibly fast growing area for telecommunications services driven in part by the outsourcing of manufacturing, software development and call centre services from the USA and Europe to take advantage of lower labour cost. Asian countries are very receptive to new technologies. Of the 18 million embedded-camera phones sold world-wide in 2002, 13 million were sold in Japan so the desire to have video communications is strong in Asia.”

Vince Waterson was an early user of videoconference systems beginning in the UK in 1977. Throughout the last decade of travelling to and living in Asia he experienced the difficulty and excessive cost of using videoconference services as an essential tool for his business and saw the opportunity for introducing a videophone service that was low cost, easy to use, ubiquitous and above all robust.

In 2003 Waterson assembled an international group of companies including Radvision, Mabuhay Satellite Corporation, Advantech AMT, Network Advantage, Aethra, MTS IntegraTRAK, C21 Technology along with Hawaii Pacific Teleport towork on a proof of concept demonstration of a Public Switched Videophone Network for Asia-Pacific.

Satellite was chosen as the preferred delivery platform because it provides a flexibility that is currently not available on domestic and international fibre circuits in the Asia-Pacific region. The intended PSVN will use a Network Advantage satellite bandwidth management system managing space segment initially on Agila2 satellite and a Radvision IP/ISDN gateway at HPT teleport to interconnect ISDN videophone subscribers in the USA with the Asia-Pacific region. PSVN DAMA VSAT hubs in 40-50 cities in Asia-Pacific would use satellite transmission equipment provided by Advantech AMT. The billing system for the network would be provided by MTS IntegraTRAK. C21 Technology has provided an online subscriber directory for the network. Plans for the new network include a 24x7 videophone operator call centre in Hawaii to provide directory assistance, conferencing, videophone on-screen text translation of foreign languages, telemedicine services etc.

It is intended to form a new corporation to establish the PSVN and appoint PSVN network affiliates in Asia-Pacific to operate the PSVN City Gateways.