IP voice gains ground: Voicenet, Genuity give IP telephony a boost

Advancements in voice-over-IP technology continued last week, as Voicenet launched a new gateway targeting broadband users and Genuity unveiled plans to include equipment from NetSpeak in its IP network.

Voicenet's Gateway aims to capitalize on the company's network - in place for a year and a half - by using IP technology in reverse, said Carmen DiCamillo, president of Voicenet.

The Gateway - a box that creates two telephone lines that customers can use as voice or fax lines (see figure) - is placed at the customer premises and paired with a DSL or cable modem connection that must have a static IP address, DiCamillo said.

Inbound calls are received through the gateway via local presence numbers selected by the customer. Users can choose local numbers nationwide, essentially giving them a local presence in those locations, DiCamillo said.

"This gives customers the ability to get local numbers and to have that presence in a local market where they do not currently have facilities, where they are not currently located," he said.

For example, a business user based in Los Angeles could give his partner in San Francisco a local number, or a mother who lives in New York could establish a local number for her son at college in Chicago, he added. An unlimited amount of local presence numbers can be routed to a Voicenet Gateway.

"If you have seven offices across the country, you can get a number for each office," DiCamillo said.

Calls are routed over Voicenet's private IP network, which is powered by equipment from Cisco Systems, DiCamillo said.

Voicenet has teamed with incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) and competitive LECs (CLECs) nationwide to route incoming calls into a co-location facility, through one of Cisco's gateway products and onto Voicenet's IP network. Call traffic then would traverse Voicenet's network, making its way to the broadband connection and the gateway at the customer site.

The Gateway also can be used for outbound calling, traveling across Voicenet's network until it is handed off to the public network owned by Voicenet's CLEC or ILEC partner at a given location, he added.

Service packages start at $49.95 per month for existing broadband customers. The monthly fee for a high-speed connection is $99.95 per month. Packages include two telephone lines, two local presence numbers, two voice-mail boxes, unlimited inbound calling and 5 cents per minute outbound calling within the U.S. Additional local presence numbers can be added for $18 each per month, and all gateway-to-gateway calls are free.

Voicenet provisions DSL for homes and businesses nationwide via partnerships with Covad Communications, NorthPoint Communications and Verizon Communications.

Voicenet's ability to assign local numbers will appeal to small businesses that want to appear larger than they are, predicted Imke Mensah, an analyst with Atlantic-ACM.

"[Customers] feel more inclined to call a number that's close. You have more of a sense of security if [the business has] someone near," she said.

Early problems with quality gave voice over IP a bad rap, but the technology is getting better and may be worth a second look, Mensah said.

"The people in the forefront of technology might realize that because they've been able to experience it, but [consumers] still have the idea in their minds that you forgo quality for low price," Mensah said.

In an effort to improve the quality of its IP network, Genuity - formerly GTE Internetworking - said last week that it will add NetSpeak's Infrastructure Gatekeeper and Router Server to the mix.

Genuity has launched multiple enhanced features by partnering with application service providers (ASPs) such as Pagoo and Dialpad.com. NetSpeak's software will allow Genuity to better manage the ASP's subscribers, routing calls more quickly to those specific locations, said Jim Kwock, vice president of marketing for NetSpeak.

NetSpeak's technology also will let Genuity provision customers more efficiently, he said.

"It's intelligent call management software that helps better manage networks to scale them," he added.