posted by: Mark Cortner
The recent announcement by Verizon that it will deliver all of next-generation network multimedia content over its IP-based core network, facilitating the convergence of fixed and wireless networks, is good news for wideband voice technology. The voice market is attempting the ride the wave of hype and interest in high-definition technology with the wideband voice although several practical implementation obstacles currently limit the benefits and value of wideband voice.
The fact that a significant proportion of voice calls sourced from enterprise telephony systems must traverse the PSTN for call completion renders the use of wideband voice to intra-enterprise participants is one obstacle. In addition, the use of mobile phones is increasingly common within the enterprise—many users utilize simultaneous ring, mobile extension, and mobile UC client capabilities provided in conjunction with an enterprise’s IP-PBX system to receive calls on their mobile phones instead of their desktop handsets. The impact of both of these use case scenarios diminishes the effective use and benefits of wideband voice.
The announcement from Verizon indicates that the function of network transport and media transcoding will be separated; if any media transcoding is required the primary responsibility will fall to the participating endpoints—the network will provide a media conversion function only in cases where the endpoints do not share a common codec. If the wideband voice community can convince the fixed network and wireless network endpoint vendors (nimble) to support wideband voice, the networks (not so nimble) most commonly utilized to transport voice traffic to business partners, customers, and in many cases an enterprise’s own employees, will no longer be an impediment to the use of wideband voice.
The recent announcement by Verizon that it will deliver all of next-generation network multimedia content over its IP-based core network, facilitating the convergence of fixed and wireless networks, is good news for wideband voice technology. The voice market is attempting the ride the wave of hype and interest in high-definition technology with the wideband voice although several practical implementation obstacles currently limit the benefits and value of wideband voice.
The fact that a significant proportion of voice calls sourced from enterprise telephony systems must traverse the PSTN for call completion renders the use of wideband voice to intra-enterprise participants is one obstacle. In addition, the use of mobile phones is increasingly common within the enterprise—many users utilize simultaneous ring, mobile extension, and mobile UC client capabilities provided in conjunction with an enterprise’s IP-PBX system to receive calls on their mobile phones instead of their desktop handsets. The impact of both of these use case scenarios diminishes the effective use and benefits of wideband voice.
The announcement from Verizon indicates that the function of network transport and media transcoding will be separated; if any media transcoding is required the primary responsibility will fall to the participating endpoints—the network will provide a media conversion function only in cases where the endpoints do not share a common codec. If the wideband voice community can convince the fixed network and wireless network endpoint vendors (nimble) to support wideband voice, the networks (not so nimble) most commonly utilized to transport voice traffic to business partners, customers, and in many cases an enterprise’s own employees, will no longer be an impediment to the use of wideband voice.
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