"Termination" of Internet telephony calls from anywhere in the world to a standard telephone in their local area.
"Access" to Internet telephony services from a standard telephone in their local area.
Major Considerations for Choosing ITSPs:
Access to a dedicated, high-speed connection to the Internet.
Select a reliable Internet telephony gateway to convert voice conversations from the regular telephone network to the Internet and vice versa. There is limited interoperability between gateways from different manufacturers so the choice of a gateway often depends on the selection of an "Exchange Carrier".
Develop a business relationship with an Exchange Carrier and/or join a "NextGen Telco" Program.
Establish a business relationship with your local phone company (and possibly even a long distance phone company).
Select a billing solution that works with the Internet Telephony Gateway that you selected. This is the Achilles heel of ITSPs每good billing is good business!
Develop a service-oriented business model and attitude with 24x7 support.
Who's Who
8x8每www.8x8.com
8x8, Inc. offers the Packet8 broadband telephone service (www.packet8.net), consumer videophones, hosted iPBX solutions (through its subsidiary Centile, Inc.), and voice and video semiconductors and related software (through its subsidiary Netergy Microelectronics). 8x8 has developed and owns the complete end-to-end solution and technologies underlying the Packet8 service and we are now working on delivering such advanced features and services as broadband video telephony and video-enabled voicemail.
AT&T每www.att.com
Since 1997, AT&T has delivered some managed VoIP services to businesses, but after the company experienced a fourfold increase in VoIP customers during 2003, it announced in December that will dramatically expand its VoIP portfolio and aggressively market a full suite of VoIP-enabled services to business customers worldwide. AT&T will also deploy a new VoIP consumer offer in major cities across the US in 2004. AT&T's VoIP offer will be available in cities across America to customers having different kinds of broadband access. Their residential VoIP offer will provide an array of new, enhanced information services, including advanced call-management capabilities and unique web-based functions.
Bell Canada每www.bell.ca
Bell Canada announced in December that it will migrate all of its voice and data traffic to a national IP backbone network by 2007. Bell Canada will engineer its IP-based communications so as to provide its customers with simpler provisioning, greater self-service and a stable multimedia Internet. The company will aggressively market VoIP services to small and midsize businesses, and for the enterprise market, it has formulated a voice and data IP migration plan for each of its corporate customers in 2004. It is also conducting IP TV trials. Bell Canada says the big move to IP will also result in drastically reduced operating costs.
British Telecom每www.bt.com
BT recently became the first UK telco to offer a mass-market consumer VoIP service. Its Broadband Voice package consists of a box that plugs into an Ethernet router, modem or cable set-top box and sends voice calls over the Internet. Subscribers are billed ㏒7.50 per month, plus 3p per minute for daytime landline calls with a minimum charge of 5p. Evening and weekend calls are free for the first hour, and 1p per minute afterwards. The box cannot plug directly into an ADSL modem, however, so BT may integrate a router into future versions of the product for those customers who don't yet have one.
Cablevision每www.cablevision.com
US-based Cablevision, once known simply as a cable TV company, now offers Optimum Voice. It's a high-quality VoIP service available exclusively to Cablevision's Optimum Online. The service offers unlimited local, regional and long-distance calling within the US and Canada and calling features (e.g., Call Waiting, Caller ID, Call Return, Three-Way Calling, etc.) at a flat monthly rate of USD $34.95.
Comcast每www.comcast.com
Mammoth US cable operator Comcast offers Comcast Digital Phone service, which allows subscribers from one to four virtual voice lines. Customers also enjoy unlimited local calling, low rates on in-state and state-to-state long distance calls from home, a choice of calling features, and you can even keep your current phone number.
Covad每www.covad.com
As the first company to commercially deploy DSL in the United States, Covad has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building a network that passes more than 40 million homes and businesses in 35 states每the largest nationwide footprint of any DSL company. It offers DSL, T1, managed security, web and email hosting, IP and dial-up services directly through Covad's direct sales force and web and telephone sales and through ISPs, value-added resellers, telecommunications carriers and affinity groups to small and medium-sized businesses and home users.
deltathree每www.deltathree.com
Founded in 1996, deltathree is a leading provider of proven, high-quality Internet telephony products, services and infrastructure for service providers worldwide. Their private-label VoIP products include PC-to-phone, phone-to-phone, and broadband phone solutions, while their robust back-office suite includes billing, operations management, marketing support, and network management. All of these elements can be provided to their customers under the turnkey Hosted Communications Solution.
ITXC每www.itxc.com
Founded in 1997, ITXC Corp. is one of the world's largest carriers based on minutes of international traffic. The company sells wholesale long distance voice services that are carried over the company's own global VoIP network每ITXC.net每which transmits millions of minutes every day among more than 175 countries worldwide. ITXC exchanges voice traffic with winning carriers and service providers in all corners of the world, providing reliable, rapid and scalable revenue streams from global traffic to terminating carriers and providing low cost, high quality call completion for global traffic from originating carriers.
Level Three每www.level3.com
Level Three's new voice service, (3)VoIP MARKETPLACE, terminates calls originated on the PSTN to IP endpoints. With this service, calls can be placed into the Level 3 Network via Level 3-assigned or customer-ported local telephone numbers. Once a local call is placed, it's converted to IP. The IP media is transported over Level 3's MPLS-enabled backbone to a customer's IP voice application. (3)VoIP MARKETPLACE service is available in major markets across North America and is ideal for companies such as conferencing service providers, call center operators, calling card companies, voice portals, and other businesses with local applications.
Net2Phone每www.net2phone.com
Founded in 1995, Net2Phone was one of the pioneers in VoIP services as well as the Net2Phone CommCenter software that allows you to make phone calls and send faxes to anywhere in the world. They started a Cable Telephony Division in November 2001 to develop a cable telephony solution that conforms to Cable Labs' PacketCable standards. This solution provides cable operators with their own branded cable telephony service that is less capital-intensive and also reduces overall operating expense. One early example of this was the Liberty Cablevision/Net2Phone June 2002 deployment in Puerto Rico.
Qwest Communications每 www.qwest.com
Qwest Communications International recently announced the first of a phased deployment of VoIP services to customers in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Qwest is the first major telecommunications provider to offer VoIP services to residential customers. Qwest's blend of local and long-haul network assets make VoIP a natural evolution because the company can offer the "last mile" broadband connection to customers' homes through DSL and then transport the long-haul traffic onto its nationwide data and IP network.
SBC每www.sbc.com
SBC, one of the biggest of the "baby bells," now offers a VoIP service to enterprises, as part of its comprehensive PremierSERV Total IP Communication Solution, a portfolio of managed services built around Cisco AVVID gear. SBC offers two levels of SBC PremierSERV IP Telephony Advantage: Essential and Complete. The Essential solution offers a single point of contact for integrated fault management, remote diagnostics, trouble isolation, and resolution support. When alarms occur, the SBC Customer Care team diagnoses and corrects the condition. For a greater level of service, the "Complete" solution provides all the services of the Essential solution with proactive analysis of the Cisco AVVID hardware platform, operating system, and applications. Web-based performance reporting and reviews keep you informed as to the supported IP telephony equipment's "health." As far as residential VoIP is concerned, SBC is still gauging consumer demand in that area.
TelePacific每www.telepacific.com
A complete solutions provider for business communication needs offering local, long distance, broadband Internet, web hosting, co-location, and data transport services. Headquartered in Los Angeles, TelePacific delivers its wide range of solutions and services to California and Nevada-area businesses, representing seven major metropolitan markets.
Time Warner Cable每www.timewarnercable.com
This huge US cable operator serves nearly 11 million customers. They recently announced a new version of their digital phone service that can reach PSTN customers in 27 markets. It's also capable of location-based 911 service and Local-Number Portability.
TransNexus每www.transnexus.com
Since 1997, TransNexus has been developing VoIP inter-exchange solutions that allow carriers to retain their existing business processes for clearing and settling inter-carrier traffic with next generation telecom architectures that leverage the advantages of VoIP. TransNexus developed the Open Settlement Protocol (OSP) standard with Cisco, 3Com and others. OSP is the industry standard for secure inter-domain route authorization and accounting of VoIP and SIP traffic. Major VoIP vendors supporting OSP in their products include 3Com, Alcatel, Cisco, Ericsson, Mediaring, NEC, Radvision, SS8 and others.
Verizon Communications每www.verizon.com
Verizon is another big US "baby" bell that will probably have Internet phone services up and running by the time you read this.
VoicePulse每www.voicepulse.com
This New Jersey-based company that uses its VoIP network to deliver high-quality service and advanced features not ordinarily available to residential customers. No computer, software, or configuration is necessary; all you need is an ATA adapter, your regular touch-tone phone and your existing Internet connection. Like other VoIP upstarts, VoicePulse offers flat-fee calls. You can call anywhere in the US for free with the America Unlimited ($34.99) and Small Business ($45.99) calling plans. Calls to other VoicePulse customers are always free. VoicePulse's Enhanced Voicemail even lets you receive messages via email. You can activate, deactivate, or configure call control features instantly on the web or right from your phone.
Volo Communications每 www.volocommunications.com
Volo is a next-gen service provider that offers voice, data and enhanced services to carrier customers including, RBOCs, CLECs, DLECs, ISPs, cable providers and IXCs, utilizing both TDM and Packet Technology. Volo Communications is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caerus, Inc., another company founded by Shawn Lewis, inventor of the "free softswitch" service offering, and whose name is on the patents for the first softswitch and SS7 Media Gateway. Caerus Networks, Inc. develops advanced services, and platforms exclusively for the Volo Network and its customers. Caerus Billing, Inc. is a billing and mediation software company that provides in-house services for 3rd party service providers, and carriers. The three companies together provide an end-to-end solution.
Vonage每www.vonage.com
Perhaps the most well-known and successful of the recent crop of VoIP providers, Vonage has announced deals with ISP EarthLink and several second- and third-tier cable companies including Advanced Cable Communiations, Armstrong, and CableAmerica, which will allow them to deliver VoIP to rural, regions ignored by the Bell companies. Vonage recently replaced Cisco Systems with Motorola as its exclusive telephone adapter supplier.
Cristie Davis, our news editor, can be reached at cdavis@vonmag.com.
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