SPRINT READY LINK, DYNAMICSOFT BOLSTER SIP COMMUNITY

Sprint's launch of its Ready Link press-to-talk service last month carried with it industrywide implications for session initiation protocol and strong validation for SIP-based infrastructure provider dynamicsoft.

This week, dynamicsoft will announce that Sprint has deployed its Service Engine to manage call routing, authentication and authorization for SIP-based communications. Sprint, which has worked with dynamicsoft throughout the development and deployment of its SIP-based infrastructure, is the first wireless operator to deploy an infrastructure based on the protocol.

“There has always been the question of whether SIP can work in a network supporting tens of millions of subscribers,” said Patrick Farley, CEO of dynamicsoft. “This validates SIP as a viable, end-to-end protocol in large-scale networks.”

Early reviews of Sprint's press-to-talk service indicate better latency and call setup than service from Verizon Wireless, for which dynamicsoft's Service Engine is partly responsible. However, analysts said such early quality comparisons don't mean much, and both Sprint and dynamicsoft are emphasizing the long-term benefits of having deployed a new infrastructure.

“Sprint finishes up with a SIP-based infrastructure on which they can deploy multiple services going forward,” Farley said.

To the carrier, the competitive edge is not just a comparable-quality service, but also the ability to build other SIP-based services along with Ready Link without needing more infrastructure.

“Once you establish a rock-solid underlying base, adding additional services and capability becomes quite easy,” said Mark Peck, dynamicsoft's program manager responsible for the Sprint account.

Sprint's vice president of technology development, Oliver Valente, said in a statement that the SIP-based services platform will set the stage for a broad array of new services.

The SIP platform is important, but it is the overall IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), of which SIP is a part, that supplies the foundation for new services, said XJ Wang, senior analyst at The Yankee Group. “IMS makes it easy to integrate a lot of IP services.”

And even for non-SIP based competitors, such as Verizon, “if the push-to-talk business proves to be good, it will be easy for them to convert,” Wang said.