D-Day for IP Lucent opens door to voice for cable, Internet and data providers

A new solution from Lucent Technologies will let carriers offer their customers the ability to make calls over data networks such as the Internet using ordinary phones or fax machines.

Lucent's Internet Telephony Server SP uses a "hop-on/hop-off" capability and can work in any public network to route calls over data networks, providing traditional voice carriers a cost-effective alternative to long-distance calling, and data network providers an opportunity to play in the voice market.

"This is a very exciting development in the evolution of the network," said Peter Bernstein, president of Ramsey, N.J.-based Infonautics Consulting. "This is the first step toward putting in place a flat data packet network for voice, faxing and data.

To enable consumers to place calls from ordinary phones or fax machines over the Internet or other data networks, service providers need two Internet Telephony Server SPs, one near the central office where the call originates and another near the termination point.

The call travels over the public network to the caller's local CO and is then handed off to the Internet Telephony Server SP. The server sends the call over the Internet to another server in a CO near the call's destination, which routes the call over the local public network to a standard phone.

Through this approach, ISPs, cable operators and other non-traditional carriers could use the Internet as a tool to leap into the role of voice and fax service providers. Already, MCI, GTE Telephone Operations and France Telecom have announced plans to test the platform starting as early as this month.

Lucent will also offer developers application programming interfaces (APIs) and tools based on its elemedia line of sound-quality products to build interest in the use of data networks, said Gerald Butters, Lucent's president of network systems for North America.

"We expect IP to continue to explode as more developers capitalize on its abilities," Butters said. "Our intent is to develop these APIs to make it easy to allow other developers to write for this platform. It's not hard to imagine conferencing and call center applications based on this.

The first application to gain widespread attention could be faxing, one analyst said. The Lucent system allows customers to send faxes over the Internet in real time, unlike other Internet faxing approaches, which are subject to the same delays as e-mail.

"Even though they're putting in the elemedia components, there's still the element of congestion and its effects on voice quality," said Mike Arellano, an analyst at Probe Research, Cedar Knolls, N.J. "But for faxing, dropped packets are not important.

The success of Lucent's approach will depend on two things: Lucent's ability to learn how to market its products, which is improving rapidly, and the upcoming FCC ruling expected to reduce access charges, scheduled in May, Arellano said.