Growing pains

Communications News, Jan, 1998 by Morris Edwards

Even with the improved protocols, though, Internet telephony will not be widely deployed until products are available to integrate with today's PBXs and Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs). Lucent, Rockwell, and Vienna Systems are among the firms addressing this issue with gateway servers that can link IP data networks with a PBX or ACD for intracompany use.

These servers convert voice, video, and data into IP packets that can be sent across the Internet or corporate intranets. However, the connection is point-to-point, so linking offices in Boston and San Francisco, say, would require installing a $4,000 gateway server on the PBX at each site.

For the moment, the gateways would also have to come from the same vendor. Work is progressing on interoperability specifications for gateways, but a standard could be more than two years away.

LEADERSHIP BATTLE

Once performance and interoperability problems are solved, there may still be a major obstacle to Internet telephony in the form of opposition from interexchange carriers, who are concerned that telephony services offered by Internet service providers (ISPs) could decimate their revenues.

Phone companies are expected to continue pressing for regulation of Internet telephony and the imposition of tariffs on voice traffic over the Internet, and they could have a sympathetic audience with cities, townships, and states who tax phone calls and may prefer the status quo.

Many analysts believe that the major carriers will have to embrace Internet telephony for the service to be viable. For network managers, buying Internet telephony services from an ISP or carrier is an attractive option. It would free them from worrying about such issues as equipment interoperability and capital investments. It would also allow them to broaden the reach of corporate IP-based phone calls, while taking advantage of Web-enabled call centers, unified messaging. and other integrated applications.

AT&T, MCI, and Sprint are reportedly eyeing the opportunity, but thus far have lagged behind their counterparts in such countries as Australia, Finland, Japan, and New Zealand, which have already conducted Internet telephony trials using gateways from VocalTec and Vienna Systems.

MCI and its rivals claim that lack of carrier-class switches capable of handling tens of thousands of IP voice calls concurrently has slowed deployment plans. However, such switches are expected later this year, so we could soon witness an interesting battle among carriers and ISPs for leadership in Internet telephony.

Next month: The latest products for Internet telephony

Data communications consultant Morris Edwards is program chairman of the Network Computing Solutions Conference and Exposition, or NetCom, which will be held March 24-25 in Atlanta and April 1-2 in Ft. Lauderdale.