In this edition, we’d like you to meet Edwin Punt. Edwin is the product manager for two important and closely related elements of the KPN International portfolio: IP Transit and International Corporate Internet (ICI).




After working internationally as an electrical engineer, Edwin joined KPN in 1996 as an ISDN specialist. He has a deep knowledge of both telecommunications and IT and before taking on his current role he managed peering, ensuring the inter-connectivity between service providers and KPN needed to deliver a seamless service to clients.

You can also download the interview as a word-file at the bottom of this page.

Edwin, can you briefly introduce the two products which you manage?
I manage IP Transit, which is a well-established internet access service designed primarily for our wholesale customers, and ICI – or International Corporate Internet. ICI is a more recent product which we have developed specifically to deliver rapidly scalable internet service to international business customers. ICI is based on our Next Generation Network (NGN).

Both products deliver an appropriately ‘big pipe’ for internet access to their respective target markets, with IP Transit offering ports of up to 10 Gbit/s and ICI up to 1 Gbit/s provided through NGN access. With IP Transit we simply provide the ‘socket’ while with ICI we offer a range of related value-added services.

What are the hot issues for your clients right now?
For all our clients, corporate and wholesale, cost continues to be a key issue. So in addition to service quality, KPN International, like all other service providers, must also be able to compete on cost in order to stay in the game. This is easy to say, but the reality becomes a little more complicated as markets develop.

The current battle for cost-competitiveness is fought most keenly in hotspots including Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt. The future challenge for providers, however, is to achieve quality of service at a fair price in developing markets such as Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In all these geographies we can expect explosive growth in traffic.

Besides cost, resilience and quality of service are regarded as critical by our customers. For wholesale clients purchasing IP Transit services, for example, any dip in performance quality is echoed in a degradation of service for the end-user and this damages their business. Client and brand loyalty among consumers is fragile, and our clients cannot afford to give their own customers any excuse to switch allegiance. KPN International scores highly in both resilience and quality of service.

In a highly competitive market, what makes KPN International different?
Our clients seem to appreciate the speed and efficiency with which we manage commercial engagements, and then follow through swiftly with contract implementation. This immediacy of response shows that we understand just how important it is to satisfy our clients’ actual business requirements.

As a product manager, I work in very close collaboration with our sales and operational teams. By making sure we can bring the right combination of skills and experience together for our customers from the very first encounter, we are constantly seeking to anticipate their business needs.

IPV6, for example, does not really impact our customers right now, but everyone recognises its future importance. Because KPN International has already prepared the ground for IPV6, our clients understand that when they are ready, so are we.

If we look at our corporate clients’ increasing desire to rationalise the sourcing of IT and telecommunications services, KPN International offers another important point of differentiation: KPN’s integration of Getronics allows us to include a complete range of desktop services as a modular extension of our existing Next Generation Network activities.

As a product manager, what’s the biggest challenge?
More than anything else, I suppose, it’s about achieving equilibrium. Let me explain. For IP Transit to work as a business, we need to ensure that incoming and outgoing traffic more or less balances. If we can achieve that balance over the KPN International backbone network, then we have a business model which is sustainable – and that’s good for our clients and for us too.

KPN does achieve this balance. On a personal level, this is deeply satisfying as it means combining such a broad range of technical, commercial and business skills. Once again, the theory is fairly straightforward. With IP Transit, our wholesale clients are mostly either ISPs or content providers. The former traffic is mostly incoming and the latter is mostly outgoing – as long as we develop our business to serve these two sub-sectors effectively, then everyone is a winner.

KPN International has recently announced significant extensions to its network in the USA. Why is this important?
This extension is a very clear example of how clients influence KPN International’s development. Everybody talks about client intimacy and responsiveness, but it is only when that intimacy is transformed into practical development that it really begins to count.

During 2008, our leading European customers were happy with the service in continental Europe, but voiced their concern over lack of resource for the UK and for transatlantic business. As a result of this feedback from our customers, we have significantly extended the service by providing additional transatlantic routing via Manchester, London and Paris and by adding six new Points of Presence across the USA.

These developments increase the opportunities and effectiveness of peering with US networks. The logic of this development has already been strongly endorsed with increased business: we have seen a 400% increase in client traffic associated with this strategic expansion.

How do you see the future for IP Transit and ICI?
In a way, both IP Transit and ICI act as barometers for development and growth in the digital economy overall: as digital demand increases, so does demand for these core products.

Despite the world’s current economic troubles, I believe that the digital economy is going to be instrumental in recovery and may even gain disproportionate benefit in the short term. It is interesting to note, for example, that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently attributed 8% of British business to the digital economy - and that is just the starting point.

As an increasing proportion of business becomes international, the continuous need for improved digital communication will increase, and this will directly impact the need for IP Transit and ICI services.

Digital uptake in our private lives increases too and this may actually be positively affected by recession – it’s cheaper after all, for a family of four to download a high-definition digital movie and make popcorn at home than it is to go to the cinema!

We can expect major developments in terms of communication and digital business across geographies too. The bond between the USA and Europe is strong and growing. The next bridge to build for KPN International’s European customers, will be into Asia Pacific. This introduces a whole lot of new challenges, especially for those businesses involved in content delivery which are heavily language-dependent. Here again, I believe technology coupled with business commitment will create new paths for us all.

If you would like to discover more about IP Transit or ICI, do contact Edwin directly on +31 6 23820573 or mail him on edwin.punt@kpn.com