DaZZee Integrations

State of the Technology

No one could have imagined 10 years ago the widespread acceptance of IP Telephony and Voice Over IP.  Now there are more IP Telephony phones sold per year than traditional PBX or Key System phones combined.  Whats more is that even the traditional players in the Telephony market have seen the writing on the wall and are no longer putting Research and Development money into the old TDM based systems.  Every major phone vendor is now concentrating their efforts on developing IP based technologies to replace the legacy PBX and Key Systems.

The majority of Americans have no idea that a majority of their calls end up being converted to an IP packet somewhere along the line.  Most of the major telephone companies have already replaced or have plans to replace the core switching hardware to take advantage of the vast capabilites of an IP based system.

So it is not that hard to see where the technology is heading and where you as a business should invest your money in when it comes to communications equipment.  When the time comes, will you spend your money on technology that is no longer being developed or will you put your money in the future of your business and the technology of communications.

How does it work?

The basic concept of IP Telephony and Voice Over IP is fairly simple.  In a traditional phone, when you speak, the sound waves are transmitted over the wire as an analog wave that is amplfied to keep it audible and then relayed out the other end using a speaker.  Of course there are more complicated aspects of this at the phone company end as it pertains to the routing of the call, but the basic concept is the same.

When talking about IP Telephony and Voice Over IP, when you speak into the phone, the phone takes the analog sound waves and converts that into a data packet.  Once this piece of information is converted to an data packet, it can then be transmitted over your IP based network.  Then the data packet can either be transmitted as a data packet the entire trip using SIP trunks or most likely it is converted back to an analog sound wave by an analogy gateway.  One of the biggest advantages to this type of technology is that you can utilize one cable for your voice and data communications.  In the past you would have a data drop that you plugged your computer in to and a phone drop that you plugged your phone in to.  In addition, just like you can move around your building and plug in your computer to any data jack, with IP Telephony you can just as easily move around your building and plug in your phone to any data jack and keep all of you same settings and number on your phone.  With a traditional PBX system, you would have to call the vendor out to trace the line back to the punch block and re-punch it to the new location.

In addition to the cost savings and flexibility of being able to use one cable for your phones and data, there is a whole new world of opportunites that are opened up to you with integration with your phone system and computer systems.  Now you can easily add call center functionality, unified messaging for one inbox for voice, email, and faxing, web conferencing, database integrations, phone applications such as time carding and alerting, and much much more.  It is as easy as adding a new piece of software to your data network.

Myths Associated With IP Telephony

1. With IP Telephony your call quality is bad

- With the effective use of Quality of Service and putting your voice and data into seperate VLANS this could not be further from the truth.

2. With IP Telephony all of your calls go out over the Internet.

- This is not the case.  IP Telephony is different from services like Vonage.  The underlying technology is uses the same methodology.  The difference is that with IP Telephony the calls are contained on a network that you own and control.

3. IP Telephony systems are not as reliable as traditional phone systems.

- Again, nothing could be further from the truth.  With most IP Telephony systems there is an inherent level of redundancy built in.  On a traditional PBX you typically will have one call processing server and if it fails your phones are completely down.

4. IP Telephony systems are more expensive than traditional phone systems.

- With any new technology the prices are normally inflated when they first come out.  Since IP Telephony has become a mainstream product now, the prices are inline and sometimes even cheaper than traditional phone systems.  By utilizing your existing data switch infrastructure you eliminate the need to purchase line cards used in traditional phone systems that connect phones and the telephone connections.

5. With IP Telephony if I need to call 911, they may no know where to send emergency services.

Unlike many of the Voice Over IP Carriers that offer phone service over the Internet, IP Telephony is not hindered in providing accurate E911 details.  With Internet phone providers, this can vary based on provider.  IP Telephony even gives you the ability to manipulate the data that is sent so that you could provide detailed information such as which floor in a multi-office environment.

6. With IP Telephony, I will have to run all new cabling for my building.

The fact is that with IP Telephony you can utilize your existing CAT 5 or better data cabling for both your computer network and voice network without having to run new cabling.

For More Information On IP Telephony Products Available from DaZZee Integrations

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