IP TELEPHONY:VOIP TECHNOLOGY MAKING ITS WAY TO THE EDGE

CPE vendors move beyond standard voice equipment

As voice over IP starts picking up steam, innovation in the technology is starting to shift from the core to the customer. It's a natural progression. Vendors have spent years getting their softswitches and gateways ready for the big time, and carriers finally seem convinced the stuff works and are subsequently—though cautiously—deploying the gear in their networks. But with all that attention on the big fat switch in the center of the network, the customer's equipment and the applications VoIP promises have taken a backseat.

No longer, said Lou Holder, executive vice president for product development at Vonage. With the smaller VoIP players sitting on commercial networks, and the big carriers having selected their vendors, the softswitch is now sitting back and selling the products they've spent so many years developing.

Instead, the customer premises equipment and solutions vendors are starting to gear up the innovation process by offering services and features to use VoIP network capabilities.

It's not just Cisco making CPE anymore. A host of Asian manufacturers and smaller U.S. companies are making IP phones and products, and numerous companies are getting into enterprise PBX solutions.

The most exciting of the new equipment coming out in 2004, however, is that which goes beyond standard voice, Holder said. Vendors are producing IP Wi-Fi phones to extend converged networks to the W-LAN, and several are reviving the seemingly dated concept of the videophone. IP video conferencing and other computer telephony options are regaining prominence among carriers and vendors alike as they start exploring the full capabilities of packetizing real-time communications, Holder said.

“Now that the networks are in place, carriers are really looking for a way to differentiate themselves,” Holder said. “For instance, our competitors are asking vendors how they can differentiate their services from Vonage.”