Action Communications has been undergoing changes to offer new voice service capabilities to our customers. For the last several years, we’ve been developing our support of IP Telephony (VoIP), as the technology has matured to ‘business-grade’ status. We still sell and support older (non-IP) designs of digital telecommunications equipment. However at this point in time, if a business is investing in a new communication system, we recommend looking into whether the added functionality that VoIP affords might be of benefit. Even if your equipment has a good bit of life (or lease) left in it, IP Telephony can still be leveraged, using 'gateway' appliances to Wide Area Networks, for toll savings and connecting branch offices.

VoIP, and specifically, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), IS the next big thing in telecommunications. It has become the de facto standard at the carrier level. Virtually all ILECs and CLECs are, or will soon be, carrying large portions of their 'backbone' traffic via SIP (in addition to legacy TDM infrastructure). SIP offers functional possibilities which are, at best, awkward and/or expensive to achieve with older Analog and TDM transmission. It's important to note that most Business use of IP telephony is not 'over the Internet', but over Carrier private IP networks with gateways to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Integrating communications via the internet (such as a 'softphone' application on an employee's laptop) is also quite feasable, but requires additional security considerations, and quality-of-service cannot be guaranteed.

So, why isn’t VoIP everywhere, now?

Because VoIP isn’t plug-and-play, yet, at least for business-grade use (in the sense of plugging in an analog phone or PBX to a POTS line). VoIP requires a baseline level of efficiency in data packet handling to work correctly. This performance level requirement is now well understood and completely achievable, but (both internally and externally), IP Telephony requires both sufficient bandwidth AND low latency/packet loss networking. To achieve this requires coordination between a voice equipment provider, internal (LAN) network provisioning, and service provider (WAN) to assure robust voice performance.

The key to successful use of IP Telephony is knowledgable system integration; knowing what equipment can cost-effectively satisfy a client's requirements, what the local network will need to provide, and which Carriers have the best connectivity, prices, and service record for given locations.

Action Communications has always brought a consultative approach to our clients, and has the experience and partnerships to help your communications evolve smoothly with the IP world.