VOICE-OVER-IP SURVIVORS EYEING NEW OFFICE SPACE

Embers of enthusiasm glowing despite market setbacks

Last week's Voice on the Net show in Seattle demonstrated that voice-over-IP vendors and service providers are turning their attention to the enterprise market, which has low penetration but is ripe for expansion.

One of the most significant carrier revelations came from AT&T, which announced an access solution that could turn all its data customers into potential voice customers, regardless of access mode. AT&T now offers VoIP as a managed service through its Managed Internet Service, Managed Data Network Services and Managed Router Services. VoIP customers also can hop off their internal IP network onto the public network.

“This new capability is significant because it is real,” said Joe Aibinder, VoIP product manager at AT&T. “IT managers aren't interested in doing science projects. They aren't risk-takers.”

Still, even AT&T acknowledged that VoIP is strengthening but is still an adolescent market.

“VoIP has the potential to be disruptive; however, it is too immature to deploy on a large scale,” said Hossein Eslambolchi, chief technology officer for AT&T. “It's like minor league vs. major league, and with VoIP we are still in the minor leagues — especially in network management.”

But measurable progress has been made. In the enterprise forum, a pre-conference seminar added to this year's event, enterprise customers such as architectural firm Mulvany G2, Menlo College and the Arizona office of the Auditor General recounted mostly positive experiences with VoIP.

Alistair Woodman, director of marketing for Cisco, said the VoIP industry has a long way to go. “We won the theology battle, but do we have what it takes to win the mass production war?” Woodman said.

Developments from newcomers Citel Technologies and ipDialog were aimed at easing enterprises' concerns over the high cost of replacing phones when migrating to an IP environment. Citel unveiled its CITElink handset gateway, which lets enterprises migrate to an IP-based PBX without upgrading their digital phones to IP. The gateway uses existing wiring and supports legacy PBX and key system handsets.

“We are helping to accelerate the market because we are removing a huge stumbling block,” said Alan Law, CEO at Citel.

For those looking to add new handsets but not willing to pay the going rate of about $400 per unit, ipDialog introduced the $150 SipTone phone. The San Jose-based start-up trimmed down what it called the “exotic” features of other phones to break down the barrier to entry.

Telverse, a start-up service provider, introduced a nationwide, hosted IP Centrex service aimed at small to medium-sized enterprises. The service uses Genuity's backbone and Sylantro Systems' application. “People are looking for new, innovative services, but we are rolling out the services that people want today,” said Oliver Davis, vice president of strategic alliances at Telverse.

Indeed, all of the new solution sets are signs of a rebounding market. But Jeff Pulver, CEO of pulver.com, urged attendees to do more than re-create existing service on IP. “If everything in history was driven by the bottom line, we would still be talking ourselves out of the future,” Pulver said. “The same as it ever was is not good enough.”