IP TELEPHONY OVERVIEW
IP Telephony
IP telephony is voice communication transmitted as data. Voice calls are sent over a private business network via digitized packets using Internet Protocol (IP), much like e-mail or other data transfers. Voice over IP (VoIP) gateways convert voice from circuit switch to the packet domain.
Business-class solution
Today’s voice over IP equipment provides 99.9 percent reliability. Unlike consumer-focused IP long-distance offerings that travel over the public Internet, SBC’s IP telephony solutions travel via IP over powerful business LAN and WAN networks for internal calls between customer locations (on-net) and the public switched telephone network for outbound calls. This ensures the consistent, high-quality telephony that is required for critical business communications.
Benefits of IP
IP telephony allows companies to merge internal voice and data traffic onto a single network, which can provide businesses with tremendous cost savings by eliminating the need to maintain separate networks for data and voice. In addition, IP telephony opens the door for unified messaging and other advanced features that are either unavailable or much more costly through separate voice and data networks.
Three Flavors of IP Telephony
- IP-Enabled PBX solutions work in conjunction with existing PBXs and allow business users to place calls between corporate locations using existing phone or fax equipment. IP gateways and line cards, located between the PBX on the company site and the IP network, translate analog voice calls into data. The service appears seamless to the caller, who simply dials the phone and may never know the call was completed using IP.
- Nortel. SBC is working with Nortel on selected introductions of Nortel Networks’ Business Series Portfolio--an IP-Enabled PBX solution designed to serve small- and medium-sized businesses. For product info, visit
IP TELEPHONY OVERVIEW/ADD ONE
- IP PBX solutions seamlessly integrate into the corporate data network, which eliminates the need for a stand-alone PBX. They consist of computer servers running open, standards-based software that creates inherently flexible, scalable and distributed solutions with simplified deployment and management. Unlike traditional PBX systems, IP PBXs handle all calls over IP and make it easier to link telephones with desktop PCs.
- Cisco. SBC has announced the initial market availability for selected customers of Cisco’s Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data (AVVID), which encompasses converged client devices, infrastructure hardware/software, directory services, call processing, telephony/data applications, network and policy management, and service and support for enterprises.
- IP Centrex is an outsourced solution for businesses that is implemented in service providers’ existing central offices to transform an enterprise data network into a convergent voice/data network. IP centrex is evolving to deliver the same voice quality and service reliability that customers expect with traditional Centrex. Compared with traditional Centrex, IP Centrex gives customers the ability to expand the value of existing networks by adding advanced voice services, such as voice-enabled PCs, without investing in a premise-based network. In addition, they can more efficiently move their customer’s lines as the customer moves within a location, and they have only one network to manage and maintain.
- Lucent. SBC plans to make iMerge IP Centex solutions generally available to its customers in the second quarter of next year. The company has signed a multi-million dollar contract to provide Lucent iMerge IP-enabled Centrex to approximately 2,500 Lucent employees in a building the company will open on its campus in Lisle and Naperville, Illinois, in April 2001. The project, believed to be the world’s largest IP-Centrex deployment, will integrate with ISDN Centrex service that serves the 10,000 employees in the existing Lucent buildings in this area.