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The Internet Protocol (IP) telephony industry is united in pursuit of an ultimate goal: establishing a single IP pipeline that will carry voice, video and data traffic. But when it comes to the roads leading to that Holy Grail, vendors are divided.
<B>Fact file:<a name="OLE_LINK7"> Enterprise IP telephony</a></B>
Systems that transmit voice calls over IP-based networks. Synergy Research Group defines enterprise IP telephony as the combination of LAN telephony, converged telephony and IP phones.
Key players:
Alcatel, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Mitel Networks, NEC, Nortel, Siemens, 3Com
Market size:
$1.8 billion in 2003
Forecast:
The introduction of IP in enterprise voice networks has had a drastic impact on the traditional phone equipment market, which is expected to decrease by 30% in 2004, according to Synergy Research Group. Synergy forecasts the enterprise IP telephony market will grow 26% year-on-year, creating a market value of $10.9 billion in 2009.
Take the market leaders in enterprise IP telephony, Cisco and Avaya.
Avaya`s approach is to link the new IP equipment with the old private branch exchanges (PBXs), lines and phones, while Cisco leads the IP-only, no-PBX vision.
Alain Schram, Avaya`s sub-Saharan Africa MD, says his company holds nearly 50% market share in terms of IP ports shipped in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region - 30% ahead of the nearest competitor.
Worldwide, though, Cisco and Avaya are neck and neck, with the number one position alternating between the two rivals as a result of one or two big orders in a quarter.
Most common migrations to IP telephony involve installing an IP-enabled circuit-switched PBX that can service both traditional and IP phones, or upgrading an existing PBX to handle IP. Suppliers of traditional phone systems, including Avaya, Nortel Networks and Siemens, have added IP-telephony features to their existing products, allowing customers to extend the life of their installed PBX systems and phase in IP-based equipment where it makes sense.
An alternative migration path, led by vendors such as Cisco and 3Com, is to start from scratch with an IP-only PBX.
"In this scenario, the existing circuit-switched PBX equipment is entirely replaced, along with all desktop voice terminals, unless customised IP adapters or gateways are available for analogue or digital telephones," explains Andy Bull, MD of Mitel SA.
<B>IP telephony wild cards</B>
* Price pressure may become evident if a low-cost vendor, such as Huawei, was to successfully bring to market an IP telephony system that mirrored available solutions. If this was to occur, overall system and phone ASPs could be pushed downward.
* Given that session initiation protocol (SIP) is now included in the Microsoft operating system, the path to pursue IP telephony is laid. A software-only solution that leverages existing PC desktops could provide some dramatic cost-efficiencies to the enterprise voice market, since it could, in effect, cut out the IP phone from the equation.
* "Similar to the battle of Linux against the Microsoft establishment, so goes Cisco against the [circuit-switched] PBX establishment - the largest equipment vendor leading the IP-only/no-PBX vision. Other vendors flanking the movement include Mitel, 3Com, NEC and a portion of Nortel and Alcatel."
Finally, companies can opt for a middle-of-the-road, hybrid alternative. "Circuit-switched PBX systems are based on old architecture that`s not IP optimised," says Alan Schram, MD of Avaya`s sub-Saharan region.
Hybrid or "converged" systems combine the characteristics of both of the other approaches and have a combination of IP, digital or analogue phones connected in a single system design.
Schram says Synergy`s enterprise IP telephony forecast is built upon replacement of traditional TDM (time division multiplexing) telephony equipment. "Synergy estimates the current rate of IP penetration at 33.4% and predicts 86.9% penetration in 2009."
The market is already past the tipping point when it comes to annual global shipments. Gartner Dataquest estimates that sales of IP telephony systems totalled $2 billion in 2003, compared to $1.6 billion for traditional PBXs. By 2007, Gartner predicts that 97% of all phone systems shipped will be IP-enabled.
For more VOIP information:
Adoption: More pros than cons
Cost: Cheap talk - or much more?
Deployment: Seven questions to ask before adopting IP telephony
Standards: Get with the programme
* Article first published on brainstorm.itweb.co.za
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