Telephony vendor, Tellumat Communication Solutions, has signed a distribution agreement with Canadian-based Phybridge, a manufacturer of voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) customer premises equipment.
Under the deal, Tellumat will offer Phybridge's entire product line to its South African reseller base, including the PoLRE, its VOIP infrastructure switch, says Bennie Langenhoven, managing executive of Tellumat Communication Solutions.
He claims that its PoLRE (Power over Long Reach Ethernet) is the only networking switch in the world that delivers Ethernet and Power over Ethernet (POE) over legacy single twisted pair telephone cabling, which lowers the barriers to entry with VOIP installations for traditional voice resellers.
Langenhoven explains there is a key architectural difference in the way Phybridge approaches convergence, compared to local area network-based IP telephony.
"Convergence doesn't happen at the desktop, but centrally at the PBX. Instead of plugging the IP phone into the network point and from there into the PC, it is plugged into the existing telephone cabling [with the help of a converter] and back-ended by a specialist PoLRE data switch in the PBX room.
"The PoLRE data switch is connected to the LAN and IP telephone system. This removes the data-sharing bottleneck at the desktop and creates a separate voice network with single point of convergence, with benefits concerning cost, ease of installation, quality of service and security."
With dedicated bandwidth for voice, the Phybridge solution can guarantee quality of service - a much trickier proposition with LAN-based infrastructures, Langenhoven says.
According to Langenhoven, the other benefit of using existing cabling infrastructure is the low overall cost, ease and speed of installation.
"Everything happens in the PBX room, so there is no disruption to the business," he notes. "Having to upgrade or duplicate the company LAN can take weeks, whereas a Phybridge installation can literally happen over the weekend. In addition, the network readiness assessment and corrective actions required for a LAN-based installation can be a costly affair, whereas a network assessment is unnecessary with Phybridge."
Langenhoven also points out that Phybridge has widespread use in companies of all sizes. It can be used by all IP telephony vendors and is not limited to specific IP telephony brands, he notes, adding that it is as applicable in on-site deployments as it is in hosted IP telephony situations.
"We are pleased to partner with Tellumat. Resellers look for reliable and knowledgeable distribution partners, and Tellumat joins our growing list of such partners," says John Croce, CEO of Phybridge. "Our number one goal is to help our reseller partners be more successful with their clients. Tellumat's experience and relationships with key partners contributes to this goal."