Lip service with a backbone

Lipstream Networks gives chat rooms, call centers, online conferences a lesson in voice Voice over IP still may be struggling to find its niche, but Lipstream Networks is building a customer base of converts. Springboarding off its successes at Excite@Home and Road Runner, Lipstream is extending its voice-over-IP technology to new areas, including call centers.

Compaq, one of the voice-over-IP converts, is piloting Lipstream's technology in its Hong Kong call center. Customers using Compaq's Web site were interacting with Compaq's customer support team in Hong Kong through instant messaging or e-mail. But with the addition of Lipstream's Live Voice, customers that use a PC with a microphone and speakers can voice their needs in real time to a customer representative using a multimedia PC.

Compaq enabled these services by integrating Lipstream's Live Voice service with FaceTime Communications, an electronic customer relationship management, or eCRM, tool.

"VoIP and interactive chat are most valuable in regions where telephony costs are exorbitant and telephony infrastructure is weak," said Geraldine Rossiter, director of electronic service delivery at Compaq Global Services. "We don't expect to see phone savings in North America because the infrastructure is strong. But we can expect significant savings in Hong Kong and similar regions."

In June 1999, Cupertino, Calif.-based Lipstream launched its real-time voice service and named its first customer, Excite@Home. The new VoiceChat lets Excite@Home members speak with other members using PC-to-PC voice communications over Lipstream's managed network.

Lipstream has server farms co-located in Qwest Communications' and InterNAP's data centers in Denver, and Sunnyvale and Fremont, Calif. In November, Lipstream will add a fourth farm in New York's MAE-East. As a backup to the Qwest network, Lipstream routes traffic over Sprint and InterNAP networks and through ITXC and Genuity's Internet telephony gateway networks.

These servers, plus Lipstream's call management and distribution technology, are the cornerstones of the company's service. Lipstream manages calls by using multipoint conferences.

"We cannot control a user's personal connection, but we can control our network latency," said Tom D'Arezzo, director of product management at Lipstream. "Our goal is to manage the middle part of the conversation where we can reduce the latency and try to extend our network as close to the last mile as possible."

To access the Lipstream network, users must download a 220 kb/s ActiveX file. The downloaded application enables the user's sound card to get real-time input from the microphone; it then compresses the voice into a Qualcomm codec and routes the voice traffic to Lipstream's servers.

While security is often a stumbling block for voice-over-IP services, Lipstream addresses these issues with public key encryption. To secure the network connection, each account has a special key authenticated by the server. Lipstream uses 64-bit encoding to encrypt call creation and tear down over the TCP channel. Unencrypted voice packets are sent over user datagram protocol, or UDP.

In addition to security, another voice-over-IP obstacle is enabling the application to penetrate protected corporate networks. Getting through the corporate firewall was the most difficult aspect of integrating Lipstream into its Hong Kong call center, Rossiter said.

To open these entryways, Lipstream is working with Check Point and Cisco Systems to become known ports on firewalls; it also enabled tunneling through firewalls and is working with common proxy servers.

Adding voice to the chat room was never the single goal in Lipstream's business strategy. Now, the company can show investors and customers that it is taking the next step in its original plan: targeting eCRM markets. In addition to Compaq, eight eCRM companies are building the Lipstream service into their products.

"At Excite, we proved our VoIP network and applications were scalable in an area that is not mission-critical. We were able to ramp up usage and show clients and users the power of voice," D'Arezzo said. "Now we can demonstrate the value of voice to Internet business."