Packet Voice Catches Fire

Posted 09/2000

Packet Voice Catches Fire
Custom Approaches Promise Robust IP-based Service Offerings
By Fred Dawson

The wait for the perfect packet voice solution has given way to a scramble among network service providers of every description to avail themselves of new business opportunities made possible by the latest gains in the technology.

While some players are positioning their packet telecommunications offerings as first-line alternatives to traditional voice service, many others are reluctant to go this far, but recognize the technology has become robust enough in combination with use of high-speed data access links to allow them to provide an extremely attractive second-line/multiline service at steep discounts to traditional second-line service. Either way, a surge in trials and a handful of commercial rollouts at midsummer suggested that the transition to packet voice has begun in earnest, with chances good that, by the start of next year, commercial rollouts will be going strong across a broad range of integrated communications providers, including CLECs, cablecos, ISPs and even ILECs.

Leading the charge so far are Sprint Corp. (www.sprint.com) and CLEC Mpower Communications Corp. (www.mpowercom.com), both of which are now offering multiline voice services commercially over DSL links in several markets. Mpower, using the IN interface to the PSTN supplied by TollBridge Communications Inc. (www.tollbridgetech.com), has launched services to small-business users in 15 markets, according to Robert Scott, chief information officer for the Rochester, N.Y.-based company. "Our target is the top 50 MSAs [metropolitan service areas] over the next several months," Scott says. "We're operational in California and southeastern markets now and are expanding next into northwestern and midwestern regions."

TollBridge's cost model suggests that CLECs can deliver eight lines of voice together with high-speed data over DSL to small-business customers for $300 per month, vs. the $600 or more per month it costs for a similar number of voice lines and dial-up service, says Agnes Imregh, vice president of marketing at TollBridge. "We believe the cost advantages could create an even greater market for packet telephony in the residential market," she notes.

Like other suppliers of voice over DSL (VoDSL) technology, TollBridge employs a proprietary interface with the telephone industry's GR-303 standard to deliver the call setup and feature provisioning capabilities of Class 5 circuit switches into the packet voice domain. GR-303 is the digital signaling protocol carriers use to extend the reach of their switches into remote locations over digital loop carriers.

Customizing IP

But TollBridge employs a customized version of IP packets for its voice payloads, unlike its competitors, who format their call packets to conform to the 53-byte uniform cell parameters of ATM. By using an advanced version of frame relay Layer 2 rather than IP technology to provide support for the QoS requirements of voice service, TollBridge avoids the traffic flow problems of basic IP while preserving the use of IP as the voice payload format, Imregh says.

Sprint, relying on the "Class 5 Call Agent Softswitch" from Telcordia Technologies Inc. (www.telcordia.com), which also works through the GR-303 interface, has now launched its consumer broadband DSL service under the "ION" (Integrated On Demand Network) brand in 10 markets, including Austin, Dallas and Ft. Worth, Texas; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; and Seattle, says Bob Thompson, president of Sprint's National Consumer Organization.

"Sprint is taking a portfolio approach to broadband services," Thompson says. "In May 1999 we began rolling out a high-speed Internet service that now reaches 12 of the largest markets served by Sprint's Local Telephone Division. More recently we began offering wireless broadband Internet access in Phoenix and Tucson [Ariz.]. With rapid growth in our wireline and wireless network infrastructure, we see an opportunity to become one of the nation's leading consumer broadband providers." The consumer service, priced at $159 per month, includes high-speed Internet access together with up to four voice/fax lines (each with advanced features such as caller ID and voice mail), unlimited local calling and 750 minutes of domestic long-distance service. Additional long distance is 7 cents per minute, and calls to any other Sprint ION customer anywhere in the country are free.

Although Sprint's initial residential and small-business ION rollouts relied on IP-based packet voice, in keeping with its original plans, the company last year signaled it would move to mass market expansion this year using ATM Adaptive Layer 2 rather than pure IP. Now Telcordia is preparing to adjust its softswitch accordingly, notes John Boese, vice president and general manager of next-generation networks at Telcordia. "Both Sprint and CTC [Communications Group Inc., www.ctcnet.com] are using [the softswitch] for voice over IP now, but will move to ATM shortly," Boese says. "A switch in the PSTN cannot tell the difference between us and any other PSTN switch. The Telcordia Call Agent Softswitch does SS7 signaling, controls all gateways, talks to CPE and controls trunks for voice paths. Cisco [Systems Inc., www.cisco.com] is our primary partner for providing routing and ATM--and that Cisco equipment is being used for the Sprint and CTC deals."

Crest of the Wave

CTC Communications, claiming over 13,000 customers on 361,000 lines, is another service provider at the edge of what promises to be a huge wave of packet voice launches in the year ahead. One measure of how big that wave will be is the fact that CLECs "often cannot get venture capital funding without a softswitch strategy," Boese notes.

As a first step, CTC has implemented the packet voice platform internally, interconnecting PBXs in 11 offices with its sales team. "This is a profound and exciting progress report for us," says Frederic Kunzi, chief technology officer at CTC. "The promise of our packet-based network replacing today's traditional circuit-switched voice technology is rapidly becoming a reality. The fact that our integrated communications network and the softswitch are processing business-class voice services and features validates the proposition of providing all voice and data services on a single, broadband, packet-based network."

The service provider, which resells Verizon Communications (www.verizon.com) services and features through 36 offices operating in the Northeast, plans to launch multiline packet voice services commercially in the first quarter, says CTC chairman and CEO Bob Fabbricatore. "With the addition of local voice services on the ICN network in the first quarter of 2001, all telecommunications voice and data services will be packet based, handled by a single broadband network, and be converged and integrated," Fabbricatore says.

The embrace of packet voice technology is now moving into the ILEC market as well, with Verizon now testing VoDSL, and SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com) weighing similar options.

Verizon, employing the PSTN gateway technology supplied by CopperCom, and DSL and systems integration technology from Lucent Technologies Inc. (www.lucent.com), was performing a technical test in the metro Dallas region at press time using its own employees in preparation for a late-summer launch of a market trial targeting small businesses. "VoDSL positions Verizon to compete effectively in the small-business marketplace by leveraging our investment in our advanced network," says Lee Wright, director of marketing management for Verizon. "Our extensive experience with DSL allows us to offer small-business customers lower cost, advanced solutions with the reliability and true voice quality they demand."

Verizon plans to offer VoDSL commercially later this year, Wright adds. The company, formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. and launching the test in GTE territory, has further expanded its presence in the DSL marketplace through plans to acquire DSL CLEC NorthPoint Communications Inc. (www.northpoint.net), which came to light at press time.

NorthPoint, one of the leading carrier proponents of VoDSL, is still in the technology test phase, exploring a number of vendor platforms, notes NorthPoint spokeswoman Susan Doerr. "We're moving toward market trials at a limited number of COs and expect service to be generally available commercially in selected markets beginning in the second half," she says.

SBC makes clear that it, too, is taking the VoDSL opportunity seriously. SBC is willing to cannibalize its lucrative second-line business with the much lower cost multiple-line capabilities of VoDSL out of a desire to phase out copper installation and to exploit the power of packet-based communications, says Ed Reisner, managing director for technology and product development at SBC.

"We think a proactive stance is definitely in our best interests," Reisner adds. "The market for extra lines is a core piece of our business, and it's going to stay that way."

Sign of Things to Come

In a sign of how commonplace the offering of VoDSL links soon could become, DSL CLEC Rhythms NetConnections Inc. (www.rhythms.com) has come up with a strategy which it believes will put voice services in reach of all its ISP customers as a value-add well before the company has achieved the full networking capabilities that are required to support a toll-quality version of VoDSL. Rather than waiting to install its own packet voice infrastructure, Rhythms has contracted with long-time Internet voice supplier Net2Phone Inc. (www.net2phone.com) to supply the infrastructure support it needs to offer a turnkey VoDSL solution to ISPs and other Rhythms customers.

The service will enable end users to plug their normal telephones into a Net2Phone IP device. The IP device then plugs directly into the DSL modem. Upon installation, end users can make and receive direct-dial phone calls to any regular or IP telephone in the world. Because the IP connection is both persistent and high speed, QoS is improved over traditional Internet voice transmissions, says Robert Kelley, director of product management at Rhythms.

"Net2Phone has its own network, and we are looking at where to put the connections between their PoPs and our PoPs," Kelley says.

"There is a short-term and long-term plan," Kelley adds. "One of the things we are looking at is, if we do egresses from our network and Net2Phone through an internetworking agreement, then we can take voice traffic off the ISP backbone and onto ours and Net2Phone's. What happens ultimately is that this is an opportunity for us to create a managed path to move traffic selectively off the public Internet to a managed network."

But even then, with improved quality and features made possible by a private managed network, there are issues that could prevent VoDSL from being a lifeline service, Kelley adds. "Currently, there's no way of doing lifeline functions," he says. "The other issue is that IP voice is still considered to be data in terms of how it is regulated. There's an issue of who takes responsibility for 911 calls [or] if the power goes out."

None of that should stand in Rhythms' way, once it is finished testing the Net2Phone system and moves to commercial launch, now slated for sometime in the fourth quarter, Kelley says. "We see that some of the enhanced services are part of what [induces] the decision to switch to broadband now," he notes. "So it is part of the market expansion of broadband generally."

That point stands as the key to appreciating what's about to happen now that packet telephony is a truly viable service option. When it comes to broadband connections and packet voice, it's becoming impossible to think of one without the other.

Big Guns Behind Push for Interoperability

An ad hoc group devoted to fostering interoperability among various packet voice platforms was about to make itself known at press time with an unveiling of core members, including carriers, who are pushing the effort.

While vendor backers of the open voice over broadband (VoB) initiative declined to name LECs who were encouraging their efforts, they made it clear that the message from their customer base was that achieving standards within certain packet voice platforms through the official standards bodies doesn't go far enough toward affording them the flexibility they seek in deploying such services.

"The motivation behind OpenVoB (www.openvob.org) is a simple one, and it comes directly from the collective and individual voices of large, multiplatform and multifaceted service providers," says Michael Ares, the spokesman for OpenVoB. "These carriers have expressed well-founded concerns that the tremendous power of VoB technology could be unnecessarily stymied by current proprietary system implementations that severely limit carrier procurement choices, yet, in the same breath, claim interoperability with any number of industry standards."

A full listing of supporters along with details of the initiative, including plans for interoperability testing in midfall, were to be announced in early August. Ares stresses that the driving force behind the initiative comes from RBOCs rather than CLECs, signaling that the economies and feature richness of packet voice services are too important to ignore, even for the service providers who have the most to lose in the migration away from circuit switched technology.

Vendors supporting the initiative include 2Wire Inc. (www.2wire.com), Accelerated Networks Inc. (www.acceleratednetworks.com), AccessLan Communications Inc. (www.accesslan.com), Avail Networks Inc. (www.availnetworks.com), Broadband Gateways Inc. (www.broadbandgateways.com), Cisco Systems Inc. (www.cisco.com), General Bandwidth Inc. (www.genband.com), Intel Corp. (www.intel.com), IPCell Technologies Inc. (www.ipcell.com), ishoni Networks (www.ishoni.com) and Netopia Inc. (www.netopia.com).

"We are not trying to create a new set of standards, nor are we proposing new variations or versions of existing standards," Ares says. "We simply recognize the need for cross-platform implementation guidelines that leverage the work product of the major industry standards organizations in the DSL, cable and wireless worlds."

Just how the group, even with broad industry support, would go about ensuring interoperability across such disparate platforms without triggering a new round of standards setting remains to be seen. "I suspect most companies who participate in the callfest will wind up making changes to their codes," acknowledges Chris Hansen, senior architect of Intel's broadband access operations.

Hansen and others stress that the goal is to find the points of commonality among the different platforms in order to reduce the duplication and complexity of circuits that currently are required to perform functions defined by the various packet voice protocols. "Intel's goal in this is to have someone with a DSL connection call someone with a cable modem [in the same service territory]," Hansen says.

Initially, however, the focus will be simply on getting the various voice over DSL (VoDSL) platforms to talk to each other, Ares notes. "Those technologies are needed faster," he says.

General Bandwidth will provide its multiplatform packet voice gateway to the group as a means of testing interoperability through a central point of connection, says Ken Cavanaugh, the company's director of business development. General Bandwidth employs a system consisting of a dense collection of digital signal processors (DSPs) at the network edge to accommodate whatever type of packet voice signal is passing through the gateway to and from the distribution network. This allows service providers to use DSL, cable and fixed wireless access platforms in whatever ways make sense in a given service area without having to deploy separate edge devices.

"We'll gather statistics at the callfest to determine where the problems are," Cavanaugh says.

Being able to claim true interoperability is essential to selling products to carriers, notes Kevin Walsh, vice president of marketing at Accelerated Networks, a supplier of IADs and gateway equipment. "There are many standards out there, but they need to be tested to confirm and certify interoperability," Walsh says.

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