AN INTRO TO OUR REPORT:Put to the test

The true importance of the communications industry was perhaps never driven home more pointedly than in the hours immediately following the tragic events of Sept. 11. As survivors frantically dialed loved ones (and vice versa), carrier networks swelled to historic proportions. At the same time, onlookers worldwide jammed Internet lines, desperately seeking information on the horrible news coming out of New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Faced with such unprecedented threats to their durability and capacity, telecom services sometimes bent, but they did not break. And if carriers and providers passed the tests before them that day, it was no doubt due, in large part, to earlier, self-administered tests of their various technologies. With guaranteeing the performance of systems and services now more crucial than ever, issues of installation, monitoring and maintenance find themselves subject to new levels of scrutiny as well.

In our special report on network testing, Telephony looks at the latest advances in voice-over-IP, quality of service and wireless equipment monitoring. First up, the fledgling VoIP industry finds itself under the microscope to determine the standards necessary to build consumer confidence. A new breed of start-ups, meanwhile, is emerging to ensure business users are receiving the IP network quality of service for which they're paying. Finally, wireless network technicians are finding their efforts simplified by a new generation of modular test solutions.

Equally important, the stories also examine the complexities confronting an industry that must consistently upgrade and expand its services even in times of continued economic fallout. For test product manufacturers, that means developing gear not only according to providers' technological demands but also their economic demands; for carriers, it means meeting the needs of the system without breaking the bank, while also meeting the needs of customers battling fiscal constraints of their own.

For many companies, the toughest tests are yet to come.
--Jason Ankeny