Network Voice Over IP: While network managers may debate about the hows and whens of network convergence, there is complete consensus on the whys. In fact, there is nothing speculative about these core benefits; they are already being experienced by early adopters of voice-over-IP, voice-over-frame and other convergence technologies.

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The Rewards of Voice-over-IP

While network managers may debate about the hows and whens of network convergence, there is complete consensus on the whys. In fact, there is nothing speculative about these core benefits; they are already being experienced by early adopters of voice-over-IP, voice-over-frame and other convergence technologies.

In general, these benefits can be classified into three main categories:

1) Lower recurring transmission charges

By directing voice calls over the corporate data network, rather than through a carrier, companies can significantly reduce their monthly phone bills. These savings are obviously dependent on several factors, including the volume of intra-company calls and the distances between company offices. Companies with overseas offices can experience the greatest savings, since they can eliminate a great deal of international long distance charges. These charges are often particularly high when the call originates in a foreign country that still has a highly monopolistic telecom market.

In some configurations, these savings can be extended to calls outside of the company as well. This is done by first routing calls bound for destinations outside of the company over the corporate network to the closest remote office, and then interfacing with the public switched telephone network (PSTN) at that point. Thus, for example, a company with offices in Chicago and Tokyo could route a Chicago-to-Osaka call to its Tokyo office, and then hand it off to a local carrier for the last leg of its trip. This can further reduce long distance charges.

The economic appeal of transmitting voice calls over the data network arises from two technical factors. First, data networks almost always have spare capacity. Network managers typically over-provision IP networks to allow room for growth and to avoid congestion during periods of peak utilization. At the same time, voice calls consume relatively little bandwidth. The characteristics of human speech — especially the comparatively large amount of silence that takes place during conversations — allows for a great deal of compression in the digitized transport of the call. This makes it possible for voice to “piggyback� on existing data network connections without requiring investments in adding to the capacity of those connections. Even when such additions have to be made because of call volumes, those costs are typically a fraction of the recurring costs charged by carriers to carry that same calling volume.

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