There has never been such a wide array of choices for organisations when it comes to telephony services. In the 1980s, the UK gained commercial liberalisation with many new providers being able to offer competing services. Today, we have a bewildering range of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services, in addition to the more widely used PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) offerings.
With all these choices, it is important that businesses receive the right advice from their provider. At THUS, we believe in advising and supporting our customers so that they can make informed decisions, regardless of the underlying technology, be it VoIP or traditional circuit switching using TDM (Time Division Multiplexing). In this article, we are going to give you an overview of the voice services available and how companies can manage a transition, depending on their needs.
Dedicated service
The majority of today's voice services are delivered over TDM technology. This includes all the three main categories of voice services used by organisations today: Direct Voice, Indirect Voice (using an alternative provider over a BT line) and Inbound NTS (Number Translation Services such as 0800 numbers).
These services use dedicated circuits and connect directly into the PSTN. Services are highly regulated and resilient, and suppliers like THUS are able to offer high-performance service level agreements (SLAs), comprehensive service wraps - including self-management and configuration capabilities - as well as detailed analysis tools for tracking and managing call traffic.
VoIP and TDM
The emerging VoIP services are still in an early stage of adoption. They seek to replicate and build on the features offered by TDM. In the right circumstances, VoIP services will be able to offer significant savings and benefits to users. However, care is required in analysing the benefits and the implications of the change, especially with regard to operational risk. If there are transitional or reliability problems, the saving can be quickly lost.
The general perception in the telecoms industry is that TDM will continue as the most common connection method for business voice services for the next few years. As a result, many organisations are considering small-scale trials of VoIP services, prior to any large deployment, an approach that THUS supports. These trials allow companies to understand and address the organisational changes necessary for a smooth introduction, and how best to manage risk.
Business-class voice
As a specialist network provider delivering communications services exclusively for the business market, THUS has a clear understanding of what it considers to be 'business-class voice' and it tailors its services to deliver that.
This is not just the physical service delivery itself but all elements of support, either through THUS' customer service organisation, or increasingly through its self-management tools and applications.
In addition to standard call analysis packages, which give both historical and near real-time performance information, customers can have access to self-management applications, allowing them to tune their call routings on an almost instant basis for maximum efficiency. These elements of service wrap and support are often as critical to customers as the actual physical service themselves.
It is therefore paramount that any new services come with the same advanced applications and support to allow for a smooth migration towards new converged VoIP solutions.
Other key considerations for business-class voice are availability and reliability. In the TDM world, this is regulated and controlled; the circuits are dedicated for voice and your supplier is ultimately responsible for the call performance to and from the connection in your office. This becomes much more of a grey area in the VoIP world where seemingly comparable solutions can vary significantly and in many cases, no single supplier can be held responsible for the end-to-end performance.
At THUS, we fully believe in VoIP technology and the flexibility and benefits that it can offer. The critical decision to make is when does it makes sense to consider it and how much responsibility a business wants to bring in house or outsource to a provider. The final piece of the jigsaw is how to manage the migration with minimum disruption; this brings its own challenges, in managing several contracts and suppliers simultaneously.
Even if there is no immediate incentive to move to a VoIP solution, it still makes sense to prepare the way, ready for when it does become viable and beneficial.
VoIP services for business
At the entry level, VoIP services start from soft clients running on PCs. These services can be effective, though by definition they only operate when PCs are active and the calling availability is typically dependent on the Internet connection (including contention). Though useful for additional outbound lines, the service is not generally regarded as sufficient for a main business line.
The next step up is a solution such as Demon Voice over Broadband (THUS' entry-level offering for business), which also has an analogue port capability, so users can access additional lines over the Internet directly from a router. This gives improved reliability and availability as it bypasses the PC completely, but it is still dependent on Internet performance. It becomes a business decision as to whether this is sufficient to be used as the main service.
The recommended main service option from THUS, is the IP Exchange Lines service. It is comparable to ISDN30, offering full number portability and the same range of services. It can be provided over a high-speed Internet connection or over a data network. As part of an MPLS network, and with appropriate Quality of Service (QoS), it bears direct comparison to an ISDN30 with comparable SLAs.
When businesses already have a data network requirement, this option becomes very attractive because by converging voice onto the network inter-site calls can be free and line rental reduced.
Preparing for transition
Regardless of whether convergence and VoIP is an immediate priority, many businesses have already started planning for the move. This does not need to be a short, sharp plan. In fact, THUS is currently helping a number of organisations to manage it as a staged approach. Generally, the first step is to move all existing services across to THUS on expiry of current contracts, typically to 'Calls and Lines' (BT Wholesale lines and Carrier Pre-Select) and Direct Voice. This is also a good opportunity to rationalise existing inventory and to remove any circuits no longer required. The prime benefit is that, as part of a planned migration, THUS can transfer numbers and services from TDM to VoIP in line with equipment changes and with no further need to cancel contracts.
The second step is to define and scale the data network to meet both data and converged voice requirements with the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS). Once rolled out, the voice migration can begin.
THUS focuses on providing best-in-class options for business customers of all sizes, however, it will only advise a change to their voice services if it means that they will benefit from moving to a new service such as VoIP. In many instances though, there will not be sufficient drivers for change in the short to medium term, in which case THUS will ensure that its TDM services continue to meet the needs of its customers.