A recent study by
IDC finds that cost savings will drive the transition to hosted
VoIP and
VoIP trunking over the next couple of years.
"Essentially, the problem is that in many cases there is no current “problem” to fix. The “problem” essentially can be created, though. If a potential customer finds out that they are “overpaying” by quite some amount for their voice and broadband access services, that becomes a problem. "
The article even mentions services provided by Junction Networks, a
BitWare approved provider of
VoIP trunking services for Asterisk.
For those interested in the background, convergence is simply the transmission of voice and data
across a single media. Traditionally, voice was transmitted
across voice lines, or phone lines. This service is often
referred to by telecommunications geeks as the Plain Old Telephone System or POTS. In the early 90's phone companies began offering a new type of network service know as the Integrated Services Digital Network or
ISDN.
ISDN came in two flavors, 128
kb BRI and 1.5
mb PRI. The great thing about
ISDN was that it was the first technology to use
channels for both voice and data.
In modern terms convergence is the transmission of voice, data, video, and anything else you can imagine
across a data network -- either the Internet or a private network. Some great examples of convergence are the cable company providing broadband
Internet, television, and phone service over cable; AT&T U-verse that sends
television, phone, and Internet over
DSL; and hosted voice services such as
Vonage.
So, all this convergence stuff is really great, but how does that save a business money? There are several methods available to
achieve cost savings from converged technologies. In fact, for a new phone system there really is no other way to go from an ROI and feature
benefit's perspective. For existing phone systems it really depends on the situation. However, generally speaking converged
networks are less expensive to maintain, do not require multiple networks within a single building (i.e. a telephone network and
separate data network), and offer features such a using the Internet to interconnect multiple phone systems, thereby bypassing the phone company (free phone calls between sites, woo
hoo!).
Do you even like your current phone company?Other advantages, such as least cost routing can also be leveraged. Having an
IP capable phone system that can select traditional circuits for free local calls or cheaper
IP trunks for international calling adds up to big bucks when the phone bills
arrive. Using the provider that gives the best rate for a given calling scenario puts the power back into the customer's hands to negotiate a route that is most cost
effective while putting
pressure back on the phone companies to offer
competitive rates.
If your business is intersted in a free phone bill analysis to determin if it is currently paying too much for voice services we would love to hear from you. Just drop us a note at
sales@bitwaretech.com and someone will contact you shortly.
Sources:http://www.ipbusinessmag.com/departments.php?department_id=7&article_id=481
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