This last few months we've started to see growing opportunities with SIP Trunking partners, helping them with media gateways to connect their services with end-customers that want to retain their legacy TDM PBXs.  



There are a number of reasons for this interest:

Cost Reduction - SIP Trunking allows SMBs to reduce their local and long distance charges and eliminate the need for separate T1 telephone circuits.  With SIP Trunking, all their voice and data traffic share the same physical last mile connection.

Saving the PBX - The vast majority of today's installed base is still using TDM PBXs.  Many SMBs and enterprises upgraded their TDM PBXs back in 1999, preparing for Y2k.  Many of these are still working perfectly and have years of useful life remaining.  Why toss out a perfectly good business tool, especially with the current economic situation?

Simplying The Process - instead of trying to decide on a complete communications infrastructure upgrade and try decide on a new IP-PBX, just upgrade the part they need now (cost savings).  The typical IP-PBX decision process takes close to a year, issuing RFIs, evaluations, getting buy in from all the departments.   Start saving money now!

Security - until all the issues with SIP security are fully addressed, this architecture is the most secure means to keep hackers out of your network.

Right Place at the Right Time - To date, most of the noise at the industry trade shows has been about SIP Trunking with IP-PBX, which fills the rooms and creates buzz.  However, what about the millions of TDM PBXs out there?  It seems to me that this is the bigger market that can be addressed now.

Stay tuned as this discussion continues....
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As part of our continuing series on applications based on SIP, I've pulled together Mike Wilkinson of Broadsoft and Scott Firth of IBM to discuss the challenges and solutions that small communications operators can leverage SIP and VoIP to expand their business.   The objective of the event is to educate the smaller and rural telecos, internet service providers, cable companies on the opportunities and solutions available to add voice to their existing IP networks.

The story behind the story starts on my front lawn with the owner of a local fixed wireless ISP we have here in western NY.  His network uses fixed wireless repeaters around northern Allegany County, NY to service hundreds of homes, farms and businesses with broadband that the local ILEC won't service with DSL or other wired broadband technologies.  He was describing his challenges with building out the network and desire to add services to increase revenue.   The rest of the story will be covered in today's event.

Small Operator - Are you being left behind?

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT

Small and mid-tier operators of cable systems, rural telcos, internet service providers, and regional wireless providers are constantly challenged with ways to improve customer retention and increase revenue.

VoIP and other bundled offerings are widely recognized as a means to achieve these goals. Market analyst AMI Partners Inc. agrees, noting in a forecast that SMB hosted VoIP spending will surpass $1.56 billion by 2010. Continue Reading...

This week here at AudioCodes has been very busy.  You may have seen the post on Monday, announcing our HD VoIP strategy  which will dramatically improve the clarity and quality of voice communications.

Yesterday, we announced our new line of IP Phones, all of which will support HD VoIP.  As far as I can tell, we will be the only manufacturer that will have a 100% HD VoIP capable phones (even the low-cost entry model).

The market analysts seem to agree:

• The 310HD IP Phone is positioned as an entry level IP-Phone and includes a basic display and user interface. 
• The 320HD Premium model includes a large Monochrome LCD screen. 
• The 350HD Executive model has a large Color LCD.

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Okay, it's the 21st century and there are many new innovations and technologies that make our lives a whole lot easier, efficient or entertaining.  Think back about life before cell phones.  Remember pagers and calling cards?  How about the changes in TV?  With super clear picture and surround sound, HD TV makes you feel like you are at the game.  Things sure have changed for the better over the last twenty years.

Well, with one big exception - the voice quality on your telephone.

You see, the current Public Switch Telephone Network is built on technology invented in the late 50's based on digital sampling of your voice using Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) sampling.  Back then, it was groundbreaking improvement in reliability and clarity.  But to use the infrastructure and cabling efficiently, they had to make some choices about how much of your voice to collect and transmit.  The choice was a cost/benefit decision that came up with a 3.4 kHz bandwidth that created a "sound barrier", limiting the fidelity of your voice ever since then.  

Why is this important?  The 3.4 kHz bandwidth limitation in the PSTN is universal, allowing carriers to interoperate and pass voice from one to another.  It's also the ultimate commodity  - "one size fits all" in communications.  No matter whether you use one of the Bell companies or a smaller competitive carrier, everything sounds the same.  The result?  Price wars and customer churn to chase the ever cheaper commodity service.

At least until now.

With VoIP and SIP working together, we finally have the tools at our disposal to dramatically improve the quality of voice communications and break through the "sound barrier" with VoIP that uses higher sampling rates and new voice coding algorithms.

We here at AudioCodes are quite pleased to announce our HD VoIP strategy that we feel will play a critical role in migrating both the wireline and wireless communications infrastructure away from the limitations of the PSTN and into the future of High Definition Voice over IP (HD VoIP).  HD VoIP will allow carriers to differentiate their services with much higher quality voice calls and create affinity amongth their customer base.  Enterprises will be able to improve efficiency and reinforce their branding with high-fidelity customer contact.

Want to learn more?  See our dedicated landing page at:  www.audiocodes.com/hdvoip

Or attend the live webinar that I am hosting on Tuesday, November 18th at 2:00 PM EST.  Click here to visit the Webinar Registration Page

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Okay, it has been a few weeks since the last post on my FiOS installation and I promised you a review of the newly activated television capabilities.

Installation
FiOS TV is installed pretty much like any other cable TV with one big exception - Fiberoptics cable from the central office to the Optical Network Terminator (ONT) in my basement.  From there, it is standard RJ-6 cable-TV coax cable to each of the Motorola Set Top Boxes (STBs).  The data traffic from the STBs goes over the same coax, avoiding a separate Ethernet and/or phone line run to each box (which was required for DirecTV). The installer was able to re-use the existing wiring in my house, which dramatically simplified installation.   Score: A+

Channel Selection
The channel selection on FiOS TV is actually pretty good, with a wide array of the normal cable channels and all our local channels.  The SD and HD versions of the channels are both available, but at different channel numbers (add 500 for the HD version, which is a little annoying)  Score: A

Picture Quality
The picture so far has been good (HD channels are awesome), but not perfect - we occasionally get drop-outs and pixelization. It won't be affected by rain/snow, so that's better than the DirecTV, but the picture quality is about the same. It's way better than my neighbor's Time Warner cable.  Score: B+

Set Top Box (non-DVR)
I have two Standard Definition TVs in the house that have the basic non-DVR STB.  Seems to work as you would expect, and there are a few cool "widgets" like real-time weather and some games that can be played on the TV.  Score: A

Remote Control
First the good - it comes with a remote.  Otherwise, whoever designed this remote, must have never actually used it.  There are some real bone-head button positioning and/or missing buttons.  Example: want to go to a specific channel to a one-digit channel? You punch in the number, then look around for an enter or okay button - oh there it is, in the middle of the four way direction buttons.    Dumb.  Watching a movie and start fast forward past the commercials, then hit play, oops the DVR button is right next to Play and guess what happens?  It kicks you out of the movie and to the DVR menu!  It does have one power button that can control both the STB, receiver and TV, but it has only one button for both on and off.  If one of the devices missed the IR command, everything gets messed up and you have to either get out of your chair and push the power button on the device that missed the command or go through a series of selecting that device and hitting the power button again to get it back in sync.  Try explaining that to your wife!  It seems like the remote was designed for the SD STB without a DVR, then they added some buttons for the DVR, but didn't really think it through very well.  Someone at Motorola needs to toss this design in the trash and start over.  Score: F

Pay-per-View / On Demand View
We've watched a number of either PPV or OD programs and the selection is a nice addition to the stuff that we normally would record on the DVR.  The nicest part of the OD programming is when you want to go back to an old episode of a show or forget to record it.  Some of the PPV and OD is HD too, but only a small sub-set.  The menus to find programs and search is are pretty confusing - so much that my wife has not yet figured it out.  Score: B+


DVR
This is where the wheels come off Verizon FiOS TV.  (I had really high hopes too)  Let's just put it this way: it's a good thing the DVR service is free the first year, otherwise this would be back in a box back on the way to Verizon.  The Motorola HD DVR QIP 7216 is so full of bugs and other odd issues that is borders on fraud by asking someone to pay for this.  I noted in the last posting about how the optical audio output doesn't come on until you go to a menu to activate it (after every power-on), but the bugs continue and they are far worse.  It records programs that it can't playback.  It gets confused about the live TV feed and DVR playback.  It gets stuck and requires a power cycle to regain control.   It Crashes.  You name it and it does it (or doesn't do it).  It's not just me either - after talking to some neighbors, they are all suffering the same issues. Score: F-

Value
Ignoring the above just for a second - I can see how Verizon FiOS Triple Bundle could be a reasonable value.  Internet, phone and TV at one reasonable price.  But the DVR issues kill it.  Also - FiOS suffers from what I call "bundle shock" - when you combine all three things on one bill, the total cost really shocks you.  "I pay that much for communications?!?"  (By the way, It's still cheaper to use Vonage for your phone.)  Score: B

What's Next
I've heard that you can use an HD Tivo with FiOS and I'm researching what I need to order to give that a try.  Initial searching found that I can order CableCards from Verizon and plug them into the back of a HD TiVo.  I just need to figure out how to order both parts (and get permission from my wife to buy the Tivos.)

Final Thoughts on FiOS Triple Bundle
The Internet is awesome - really fast and a good value.  The phone service is still kind of pricey, but it sounds and works great - I just wish it had the on-line control that our Vonage service has (and comparable pricing).  The TV service is okay if you don't want a DVR - otherwise it's a let-down.  
Final Score: C

Once I get the TiVo installed and working, I'll post another report.  Until then, I have an adapation of a Dire Straights song stuck in my head:  "I want my, I want my DirecTV" Continue Reading...