Blog

Launching VARs and ISVs into a VoIP Cloud

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If memory serves me correctly, five years ago, we used to position VoIP versus traditional PSTN-based dialtone. Then came the hosted concept and theme focus has turned to an on-premise VoIP versus Hosted VoIP. Today we are seeing hosted PBX service providers beginning to further differentiate themselves by targeting niche vertical markets by building on their application integration capabilities.

Hosted PBX price wars are continuing to heat up for the fourth year. The biggest battleground appear to be the growing small business market where integration capabilities coupled with soft entry costs are playing a dominant role in SMB’s choice of a unified communications platform. Most small businesses prefer to gradually increase their operating expenses while gaining immediate access to the critical unified communications technology rather than incurring a large one-time capital expense.

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Delivering VoIP over Mobile Wireless

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Both VoIP and mobile wireless broadband are relatively new technologies. With the invention of 3G wireless data network – an opportunity to make free or near free calls from your VoIP phone had become more of a reality than a concept. The war between operators of cellular networks and VoIP providers has ended in an amicable truce with the carriers finally realizing that the bulk of their revenues will be coming from data usage and shifting to the usage-based billing model for their data plans. VoIP Hosted PBX users have been jumping on the bandwagon by making calls over Wi-Fi or the carrier’s wireless data connections on all kinds of smart phone platforms.

VoIP service providers, while reluctant to even mention 3G mobile data network as a somewhat reliable means of enterprise VoIP communications, nevertheless are coming to accept the fact that businesses begin to realize the advantages of readily available mobile networks in order to benefit from truly geo independent voice service. There is even a new term for it: Vo3G which stands for Voice over 3G.

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Boundaries of Hosted VoIP Services

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In my previous posts I had touched on the differences between traditional PBX and a Hosted VoIP service. Business VoIP solutions today come in all shapes and colors and also, unfortunately, under all kinds of names: Managed Hosted PBX, Hosted PBX, IP PBX, Virtual PBX etc. The names are used interchangeably as if they all mean the same thing causing confusion among buyers as to which product to use in what situation. Today I will try to explain what all these seemingly similar names mean and what is typically included and not included in each service, what the differences are between managed and unmanaged hosted services and where the boundaries of service provider’s responsibility lie in each case.

Not all managed services are created equal. Management responsibilities range from simple moves, adds and changes to fully outsourced management of the entire infrastructure of VoIP. Let’s take a closer look at some of those service tags:

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Role of Hosted PBX in Disaster Recovery Planning

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Recent events in Japan bring me back to the subject of service survivability and business continuity in the event of a natural disaster. Japan is heavily reliant on VoIP for its telephony. In a way, this has been another significant test of IP communications in a disaster and it appears that the outcome paints fairly … Read more

Hosted PBX vs. Virtual PBX ?

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When it comes to Google searches on keywords such as “Business Phone Service” – one can get lost in the myriad of options: “PBX, VoIP, Hosted PBX, Virtual PBX”… . One of the challenges facing entrepreneurs and business executives looking for new communications provider is having an ability to understand the difference between technology solutions. … Read more

QoS: Panacea or Snake Oil?

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IT and Telecom professionals have long been infatuated with the concept commonly referred to as QoS (which stands for Quality of Service). Of course ensuring that Voice over IP meets high voice quality requirements is a key concern when it comes to designing networks. New QoS protocols: Differentiated Services (DiffServ), the Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) and the once almost forgotten Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) have been designed by some of the brightest minds in IP networking and data processing.

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DLS Hosted PBX Presented at IAO Annual Meeting

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When appearing at professional industry show or event with a service such as DLS Hosted PBX, I always try to put it in the context of this industry’s business application. I’ll admit, this isn’t always easy. That part aside, however, there were a couple of things that I found to be worthy of exploring. First, … Read more