Recently Orange announced another interconnection for video traffic with T-Systems. This got me thinking about a conversation I had last month with a customer on SIP trunking options for some of their European locations .
They asked when the service providers would be able to offer hand-offs, or gateways, so that a SIP trunk provided by one carrier could extend the voice conversation all the way to the receiving end without the need to jump onto the PSTN. Although there are agreements for voice inter-connectivity, these agreements are not yet at the same place as with video! Maybe the carrier interconnects being established to ensure QoS for our video traffic could be leveraged for our voice traffic. (As one engineer told me, just think of a video end-point as a BIG phone.)
I did a little nosing around, because this thing is the cat’s meow. I did see last year there was a German-based LEC looking to build “exchange” capabilities for voice.
I’m not naïve to think regulatory and government controls might not be part of the technology hurdles, but is that the only reason we aren’t see more of a move to federations for voice?
In a recent press release from Cisco, Rob Lloyd is quoted as saying, “The Internet of Everything has the potential to significantly reshape our economy and transform key industries.” Now, voice and video communications are just some of the “everythings,” but they need Quality of Service (QoS) enabled to deliver the best experience. If we are to take advantage of the move to any-to-any communications, the platforms and interoperability already in the cloud for video might be a way for us to get there quicker.
So, I’d ask: what other pieces might be missing to help enterprises maintain quality of service across multiple service providers regardless of the type of call (voice or video)? Are regulations not keeping up with the pace of technology, or are there other factors involved?
Thanks!
Tammy
image © Pei Ling Hoo - Fotolia.com
I've been an evangelist for new technologies for business process improvement for over 30 years. I started in electronics with the US Air Force and have worked in pre-sales engineering and support for technologies like Token Ring, Ethernet, Frame Relay, ATM, TCP/IP, IPVPN, VoIP, wireless, WAN Acceleration, Unified Comms and most recently HD Video Conferencing.