Intranet Business Solutions

Comdial’s ctvoice offers comprehensive voice and fax solutions for corporate Intranets or the Internet. IPLD systems enable Internet Service Providers to add value to their services as:

The IP Voice Opportunity

High quality voice and real time fax over IP networks is a reality today. It is having a huge impact on the telecommunications industry and the users of telecommunications - almost everyone in the world. The voice quality already approaches that of traditional circuit switched telephone networks, but at much lower costs. Also, the promise of integrated applications such as NetMeeting and Internet based shopping, education and support, including voice connection to operators, has been fulfilled. The result is an Internet application forecasted to grow from a standing start in 1996, to a two billion dollar a year business by the year 2000. Internet Service Providers are well positioned to profit tremendously from the onslaught of voice and fax over IP.

Traditional carriers around the globe have also realized the immense impact of IP voice on their business, both as ISP's as well as carriers. The result is that some of the world's largest carriers have launched international and domestic IP voice long distance services. For ISP's, now is the time to act in order to leverage their customer base and to lower operating costs.

ISP’s can participate in voice and fax over IP as corporate Intranet managers, voice and fax carriers and/or service bureaus. A fourth alternative is for ISP’s to encourage their customers to utilize IP voice and fax. But, the ISP’s themselves do not take an active part in the service, other than benefiting from the increased demand for higher capacity and quality Internet connections. It is expected of course, that many ISP’s will provide blends of these services, driven by customer requirements and demands.

Corporate Intranets

Similar to companies who own and operate their own data networks, ISP intranet customers will wish to utilize their investments in IP voice for their own internal calling. Namely, long distance calls to customers and suppliers located in those cities where they have IPLD Gateways. We can also expect customers will desire to call other cities and allow their customers to place calls utilizing IPLD rather than the traditional 800/888 services.

The first situation is the new customers who make the transition to externally managed networks, or, who move from a vendor who does not support IP voice and fax. The second is new service in implementing, managing and ensuring reliability of voice and fax services for their customers. The third is the opportunity to terminate customers' calls into cities where that customer does not have sites, perhaps at a fee. This could include international calls. All of these bring more traffic to the network, driving the need for premium ISP services with higher capacity and quality.

ISP’s as Voice and Fax Carriers

Voice and fax over IP technologies and products enable ISP’s to operate as new technology carriers providing long distance services to their customers - on a per call or perhaps flat rate fee basis. Though this may be subject to regulation and long distance contribution charges in some countries, the interest of the traditional carriers, as well as the appearance of new IP based carriers, suggests a strong business case exist. Services could be provided across the complete market spectrum - to corporations who locate gateways on their premises, or to residences and small business calling into gateways at the ISP's POP’s. Outbound long distance, inbound long distance, calling card and prepaid calling card services are all made possible by today's IP voice products.

In this application, each ISP may choose to limit services to only those locations where that ISP has POP’s. Or, similar to traditional carriers, it may establish interoperability and exchange mechanisms with other ISP’s offering similar services. IP voice is a business of "more gets more". That is, a business where having a larger calling area not only generates more traffic, it also attracts more customers. The ISP may even establish relationships with some of their corporate customers to utilize their gateways to terminate calls, perhaps only during certain hours.

For ISP’s, operating as a carrier generates revenue and locks out other carriers from leveraging their voice presence and IP voice capabilities from penetrating accounts. It also drives the use of premium ISP access services for higher capacity and quality.

ISP’s As Service Bureaus

For various reasons, ISP’s may choose not to directly provide gateways or long distance services to their customers. But, instead, manage and coordinate gateways owned by one or more of their customers, to effectively provide a voice and fax service for the benefit of all customers. Taking this approach allows the ISP to focus on the high value implementation and management services, without providing a fee based on long distance service - thus preserving the ISP's capital expenditures.