Enhanced services will do more than attract customers, it will create a "stickiness" that will keep the customer, says Stephen Gleave, vice president of marketing at Jetstream Communications Inc. (www.jetstream.com), a voice over DSL (VoDSL) gateway vendor. He wonders, however, "how do we logically get to these next-generation services?"
Jetstream realizes carriers have too much of an investment in legacy equipment to replace it overnight, he says. They have a responsibility to generate revenue, and for now it will be through this legacy equipment. Jetstream's SUPERCOMM product announcement will address carriers' needs to keep legacy equipment while meeting customer's demand for next-gen enhanced services.
Jetstream's Soft Console is an enhanced server residing either on top of the CPX-1000 VoDSL gateway or beside it in the network. From any browser, operating parameters can be set so the server can determine how the telephone is answered. The user can create a call profile that will determine how the call will be handled at a particular time of the day. For example, after noon, all calls can be forwarded directly to voice mail. Any user can determine if the call is forwarded to a home or mobile number or sent directly to voice mail, Gleave says. It puts the power in the hands of the user.
This is how it works: The Class 5 switch places the calls to the Jetstream CPX-1000 gateway. The gateway then looks to the server to determine the parameters of the call. Depending on the parameters, the gateway forwards the call to a determined destination.
Why not take the application one step further, says Gleave. "Why not download Java applications to the desktop," he says. "The beauty of this is that it allows the carriers to brand dial tone."
Branding dial tone allows carriers to customize the user interaction and enables the user to be aware of the carrier. For example, it allows carriers to download an interactive interface that may contain the company logo. This is possible because the server is setting parameters for the gateway. However, instead of just sending the call to its destination, the server sends instructions to the browser on a computer through the IP network. These instructions allow the interactive interface to register on the computer screen.
Many people sit in front of their PC all day with their telephone sitting next to it, so why not use the interaction to advertise special rates or promotions to the user, Gleave says.
The server runs on Sun Microsystems Inc. (www.sun.com) Solaris Netra and is fully NEBS compliant. The server is targeted to carriers serving the small to medium-sized enterprise market, and will be available by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, congruency inc. (www.congruency.com), a communication ASP, is announcing a service offering that allows CLECs, ISPs and ILECs to provide customers a feature-rich version of IP Centrex.
CEO Ralph Hayon explains the service as a way to manage and terminate calls to any H.323 IP telephony phone, including the i.Picasso 6000 that was developed in-house by congruency. Similar to Jetstream's application, congruency's service will allow calls to be routed to a home, mobile or office
phone. In addition, the service will allow calls to be recorded and played back at a later time, and allows the user to access stock quotes, news and weather information. Currently the IP Centrex service is in trials, but it will be commercially available by June.
Multiprotocol Networks
While packet networks have created an environment where enhanced applications will no longer rely on single-vendor solutions, multivendor networks produce interoperability issues. Enhanced services will quickly and inexpensively be developed by third-party application developers because of offerings by softswitch vendors and real applications brought to the market by Xybridge Technologies Inc. (www.xybridge.com), Sylantro Systems Corp. (www.sylantro.com) and BroadSoft Inc. (www.broadsoft.com), says Lew Bobbit, director of marketing for Tellabs Operations Inc. (www.tellabs.com) Adaptive Networks Solutions (ANS) division. Networks will include products from several vendors, and each vendor's product will need to interoperate.
Tellabs and its ANS division, a product of the merger between Tellabs and next-gen switch provider SALIX Technologies Inc. (www.salix.com), will demonstrate a family of products that will focus on multitransport services with multiprotocols.
"We will be showing a distributed network model based on an application server, media gateways and switches with the ability to operate across IP and ATM network," Bobbit says.
He adds that it would be nice if the networks were end-to-end IP, but speculates that it is not going to happen for a long while. The solutionis aimed at next-gen service providers, such as Level 3 Communications Inc. (www.level3.com) and Qwest CommunicationsInternational Inc. (www.qwest.net), which are building out an IP infrastructure. Other potential customers are the more traditional CLECs that are looking to differentiate themselves through VoIP and IP VPNs. These carriers have a need to connect to traditional networks while leveraging next-gen ones.
Tellabs was reluctant to disclose specific details, but Bobbit says the solution builds on its suite of products, including the AN2100 Gateway Exchange, ETX 5000 switch and Everest 9500 Integrated Switch.
Ericsson Inc. (www.ericsson.se) will be showing three products at SUPERCOMM, including its media gateway. Although not named, the gateway supports media gateway control protocol (MGCP) and implements silence suppression and echo cancellation. It will be able to handle voice and fax and will interface with traditional Class 4 and 5 switches.
Dave Hall, senior product manager at Ericsson, says the company's focus has been "to ensure we can build out new networks and still deliver to the old networks." Eventually, IP will be everywhere, but for now there needs to be communication between the old world and the new one, he says. The gateway should be available in the fall.
In addition to its media gateway, Ericsson is launching the IPT2--version 2.0 of its Internet telephony system that includes a media gateway, gatekeeper, interactive voice response (IVR), billing applications and network management. This updated version will allow service providers to separate the user agents and server agents, says Russ Sharer, director of marketing for Ericsson's IP telephony and access products. The real significance is users can enter the network through a dial line, cable pipe or asymmetric DSL (ADSL) link and still interact with the system. The product will be available in the second quarter of 2000.
Ericsson also is introducing the WebSwitch 3000, due in the third quarter. This CPE is a combination of an IP PBX and IP service point, which means carriers can use it to run the IP traffic back onto the network, or it can be sold in an enterprise to run a private IP network.
Among other companies making announcements at the show are Tekelec Inc. (www.tekelec.com), RADVision Ltd. (www.radvision.com) and Pingtel Corp. (www.pingtel.com).
Tekelec will be announcing velOSity, a diagnostic architecture that allows multiple applications to be tested from one computer. Available in June, velOSity is targeted to equipment manufacturers.
RADVision will add session initiation protocol (SIP) technology to its V2oIP toolkits that already include MGCP and H.323. When RADVision announces an enhancement to its toolkit, it is positive those protocols will work together, says Michelle Blank, vice president of galactic marketing for RADVision. SIP is similar to H.323. Both call-signaling protocols define mechanisms for call routing, call signaling, capabilities exchange and media control.
Pingtel is developing a Java application toolkit on its IP phone that will allow third-party developers to create enhanced applications.
