TeleDynamics Think Tank

There are many ways the IoT can leverage, and be leveraged by, VoIP systems to create a more productive workplace.

Are you hearing both sides?

By Kate Clavet, Marketing Specialist, Grandstream Networks

The very technology that makes VoIP so efficient can also indirectly cause one-way audio issues.

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), indicating that the communication travels over the internet in little packets using RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol). Since the packets are traveling through the internet, they must pass through firewalls and network address translation (NAT). Due to the tricky nature of firewalls, a common complaint of customers and installers alike is that either the caller or callee cannot hear the other party. Although this is a common inquiry and topic for support tickets, it is also rather easy to fix.

An SD-WAN can be up to 2.5 times less expensive than traditional WAN architecture.

One of the most challenging situations for networking professionals over the years has been how to interconnect remote sites and branch offices so users at all locations can enjoy the same quality of network and telephony services in a secure and timely manner. One way to do this is to duplicate all services at each location. However, this can become administratively unwieldly, not to mention prohibitively expensive.

The solution is the use of wide area networks (WANs), where centralized services like voice and data reside at headquarters and can be provided to the remote users as if they were all physically located inside the headquarters’ LAN (local area network). In this article, we look at the different ways to deploy WAN, as well as the problems solved and business benefits to be gained by using software-defined WANs (SD-WANs).

A useful yet vastly underused functionality of SIP is what is known as presence technology. According to Salesforce, 86% of executives surveyed blamed lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures. This is where presence can help.

When providing services for your customers, it’s all about convenience. Imagine a customer trying to find out some information about your service from your website. Her question is very specific and can’t be answered by the FAQs you have on the site. She spots a button on the bottom right of the screen that says “Can’t find what you’re looking for? Talk to a rep now!” She clicks it and is immediately connected via voice to a customer representative and gets her question answered on the spot. Now that’s service!

This is just one of the functionalities that Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) provides. A survey conducted by The SIP School found that 88% of professionals have either never heard of WebRTC or only have a cursory understanding of it. Here we present a few facts that will help you better understand how it can benefit your business.

It seems like everyone is talking about digital transformation these days. Technology is changing the way business is done at a mind-boggling pace, and making sure their companies are able to adapt to this change is a top priority for today’s business leaders – 81% of CEOs said keeping up with new technologies was their chief concern in a recent KPMG survey.

As a telephony dealer, you can help your customers on their digital transformation journey by intelligently leveraging their VoIP telephone system. And the good news is, it’s easier than many people think.

Last week, we touched on some of the technological advances that have allowed VoIP telephony to surpass the PSTN in both quality and reliability.

Yet, even though VoIP has been around for two decades, there are still some misconceptions about what it really is. A lot of people think of VoIP as a technology that allows placing phone calls over the internet. Although this is true, such a narrow definition encompasses only a fraction of the functionality of VoIP.

The unfortunate consequence of this misperception is that VoIP is often associated with low quality and best-effort services that offer low cost or free voice calls over the internet. Those familiar with these services have experienced the frequent disconnects, jitter and stuttering on the line characteristic of this type of service. As a result, VoIP has erroneously been associated with an unreliable user experience.

The truth is, VoIP is much more (and better) than just voice over the internet.

The most recent FCC Voice Telephone Services report, published in November 2016, states that two thirds of businesses in the United States are still using switched access telephone lines (PSTN or POTS). The reasons they haven’t yet migrated to VoIP (voice over internet protocol) are varied. One of the most prevalent myths about VoIP is that the quality is not as good or reliable as that of traditional telephone lines. The truth, however, is that VoIP technology has evolved to a point where the audio quality is generally as good if not better than analog lines.

Here we list some of the technological developments that have allowed VoIP to surpass even PSTN voice quality, some of which may surprise you!

Quantum-leap technology advancements will enable on-demand services anytime, anywhere, with ubiquitous connectivity.

by Laureen R. Cook, Principal Telecoms, Media and Technology Advisor, IFC (World Bank) 

Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) was introduced as the first 1G system in the Scandinavian countries in 1982. 2G was commercially deployed in 1992 and 3G launched commercially in 2001, allowing mobile data as a mainstream service. 4G has been deployed since 2012, and is still being deployed around the world in developing markets, and 5G is on the horizon for the early- to mid-2020s. On average, we deploy a new generation of mobile communications every 10 years. In 25 years’ time, we will have deployed 7G and be well underway with design of the specifications for 8G, where wireless high-definition video streaming and virtual reality are part of the everyday norm. We will have transformed ourselves from the Digital Era of the 1990s to 2020, to the Digital Era of Automation from 2020 and beyond, which will be an all-immersive, high-definition user experience, taking us seamlessly from Gigabytes GB = 10⁹ of data to Zettabytes ZB = 10²¹.

By Colleen Schmidt, Director of Partner Success, CoreDial

Risk is something that we fear because it requires us to put ourselves out there to achieve something greater. There is always a chance you could lose something important to you, especially if you take a risk on a venture or idea you know little about or have not adequately prepared for. The same is true when it comes to taking risks for your business. As much as we would like to mitigate business risks, the fact is they are an integral part of the growth process for any business. Just ask these business risk takers: Ben Silbermann, the creator of Pinterest, risked everything by leaving a job at Google to create the virtual pinboard site. Ben would survive early disappointments and now presides over a company worth $1 billion. Or Drew Houston of DropBox, who held to his guns when Apple Founder Steve Jobs told him to join Apple or be taken over in the market and now enjoys running a $1 billion company.

For VARs, MSPs and other resellers, your risks may not be the same as the ones mentioned above, but embracing the trends in the industry is the key to long-term success. For the unified communications (UC) industry, taking a risk on hosted and cloud-based services, as well as having a technology partner you can trust, will ensure your business stays economically solvent over time and is ready to meet the changing needs of your customers. Ignoring the shifting tides in the industry will lessen the options you can bring to the table for your customers, which will eventually impact your bottom line.