Veraz transplants Cisco in VoIP network

Score one for David. In what seems like the never-ending battle to displace the ever-present Cisco Systems as a dominant force in voice over IP networks, Veraz Networks scored a minor, but symbolic victory when Transcom Enhanced Services chose it as its de facto VoIP solution.

Transcom, an enhanced service provider with designs on providing nationwide wholesale service, has bought 87,000 ports of Veraz's I-Gate 4000 and I-Gate 4000 Pro media gateways to replace its installed base of Cisco media gateways. Transcom already is in most “NFL” cities but wants to expand, said Chad Frazier, president of Transcom.

The move gives the company a lot of flexibility. Veraz’s ControlSwitch will allow Transcom to roll out its Global Carrier Peering (GCP) solution, which can support the entire alphabet soup of signaling protocols--H.323 to H.323, H.323 to SS7, H.323 to PRI, SIP to SIP, SIP to H.323, SIP to PRI and more. All calls will be managed from a central location over a common routing, call control, billing and management framework. Though the company’s goal is to eliminate H.323 gatekeeper-centric H.323 to H.323 peering, it still must deal with the protocol because of its historical role.

“If there is such thing as a legacy VoIP network out there, its running H.323,” Frazier said.

However, it’s SIP that holds the most promise he said, because of its flexibility. “The interesting thing about SIP is I see it in a lot of places,” Frazier said. “One of the places we really see it is in our call agents to a call server or to another call agent. Unlike the legacy days when you had to swap out line cards for new applications, you literally can push out services overnight now.”