By David Sims

Increasing consumption for multimedia is driving the need for fully transformed, IP networks. Operators need to keep pace with consumer demand for fully transformed IP networks.

Of course the telecom value chain has changed significantly in the last 10 years, as an explosion of third-party application developers and content providers are delivering applications, video and other high-demand Web capabilities.

To differentiate, then, according to a recent blog post from Alcatel-Lucent, it is time to use high-value network capabilities to \"foster open innovation with an ecosystem of application developers and content providers.\"

What this means, the post explains, is that service providers are positioned to \"play a broader role in today's new value chain.\" The post notes that recent Alcatel-Lucent research shows application developers and content providers will, in fact, pay for access to high-value network capabilities because \"it gives them better contextual information for more effective targeting of their applications and content.\"

Working with an application developer and content provider ecosystem, if done correctly, can accelerate time-to-market, the Alcatel-Lucent post says, \"improves your ability to target niche markets, increases your relevance and generates non-subscriber-based revenue.\"

The post then goes into Alcatel-Lucent's \"High Leverage Network architecture,\" showing how you can use it to \"deliver more high-demand Web capabilities to more screens to increase profitability and return on investment.\"

To complement the network architecture and \"help all parties benefit from open innovation,\" Alcatel-Lucent is offering \"a family of capabilities,\" including the Alcatel-Lucent Application Exposure Suite, which allows service providers and enterprises to expose network capabilities to application developers and content providers in what Alcatel-Lucent officials call \"a mutually beneficial, yet managed and controlled way.\"

There's also the Alcatel-Lucent Open API Service, which gives application developers access to network capabilities such as location and end-user preferences, through common APIs based on industry standards. Using it, \"developers can write differentiating applications that work across service provider networks without having to navigate complex APIs or business agreements,\" Alcatel-Lucent officials note.