Burrell: We've been offering Voice over IP services for four years now. We've actually seen it move from early adopter phase to early majority phase, especially among our multi-national customers. By moving to VoIP, customers gain two main things: Visibility and control, and cost savings.
Historically, voice [service] decisions are often made locally or nationally. In a larger country, that doesn't present many problems. But in some countries where the [voice] infrastructure is still emerging, it's harder to see things like who's using the service, and if there's any toll fraud occuring. Using VoIP gives you much better visibility and control.
Cost savings come from the ability to eliminate a separate voice access circuit, plus all the calls between corporate locations [on the IP VPN] are free. For outside calls, there is a simplified pricing scheme, since you're not dealing with different rate plans determined by where the call originates. You're only paying based on where the call terminates.
Networking Pipeline: Some observers have called VoIP a "fad," and that it won't ever completely replace the current switched voice network. Your thoughts?
Burrell: It [voice moving to IP] is going to happen. It's a matter of when, not if. From a LAN standpoint and a PBX standpoint, the battle was over a few years ago, when the TDM manufacturers said [IP] was the path forward. All the long-distance companies are already using [VoIP] in the backbone.
