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Guest Opinion
April 2000
Later or sooner
VoIP capable of delivering quality voice services will come, but not any time soon.
Timothy Waters, Promatory Communications
Voice as a supplementary service over a data line—that is, as an application—is a really hot market opportunity for carriers and service providers. End-users, both commercial and residential, are at the point where they will install a VoATM/DSL service to take advantage of the compelling economics associated with converging service platforms. For network service providers, competition is stronger than ever. The name of the game is to maximize customer penetration with broader service offerings, maximize revenue per customer, and all the while minimize network deployment and service provisioning costs.
VoATM/DSL is an ideal lure for CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers) and other network service providers to attract new customers. It represents an immediate additional service and revenue stream. And it presents extremely compelling economics for the consumer. More importantly, because it can be deployed now, it lets providers capture customers today—an easier task than having to win them away from another carrier tomorrow.
The components to deploy such services are now in place. Various carriers are now deploying customer-premise IADs (integrated access devices) for voice and data, next-generation DSLAMs (digital subscriber line access multiplexers), and carrier-class voice gateway products. The key to deployment has been advances in end-to-end QoS (quality of service). With a regular POTS (plain old telephone system) line, no one thinks twice about whether or not they'll hear a dial tone when they lift the receiver. So QoS is crucial for packet/cell networks.
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"To achieve a quality-service implementation, VoIP faces a two-fold challenge." |
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VoATM/DSL lets providers implement end-to-end QoS on ATM networks today. Again they can deploy a quality service and win customers immediately. Going forward, I envision continued improvements by the voice gateway providers, most importantly support for SVCs (switched virtual circuits) on their platforms.
VoIP generates lots of discussion, and in fact you can deploy VoIP over ATM today. As for whether I believe "classic" VoIP capable of delivering quality voice services will come: Yes, but not any time soon. The good news is that the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) is working to finalize the standards. Several individual groups are working on various parts of the solution. To achieve a quality-service implementation VoIP faces a two-fold challenge. First, final standardization of these individual initiatives is not expected until later this year. Secondly, there does not appear to be an overarching process to bring the work of the various groups together into a comprehensive end-to-end QoS solution. I believe VoIP will happen sooner or later. But again, the idea is to win customers now. VoATM/DSL lets carriers accomplish that.
Author information
Timothy Waters is Vice President of Marketing at Promatory Communications.
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