Net2Phone SIPs on VoIP
Jeff Baumgartner, CED
cedmagazine.com
Net2Phone said it will complement its PacketCable-based IP telephony platform with a new offering based on SIP (session initiated protocol), a technology that's quickly going mainstream thanks to the efforts of startups such as Vonage.
Net2Phone will offer the new hosted, SIP-based platform, dubbed "VoiceLine," to broadband service providers. Net2Phone also announced its first VoiceLine agreement: a memorandum of understanding with The Cable of St. Kitts in the Caribbean. Following a definitive deal, The Cable expects to offer the service over its high-speed cable lines by the second half of 2004.
VoiceLine offers telephony by linking existing broadband connections with intelligent consumer-side multimedia terminal adapters and distributing calls onto and off the public switched telephone network. The service also features CLASS features and a billing and provisioning platform.
The company's traditional PacketCable platform creates the underpinnings of a service that looks and smells like traditional, "lifeline" circuit-switched telephony. Under that scenario, Net2Phone provides back office and billing support as well as the integration effort required to tie together myriad components that make up the PacketCable network, including the call management servers, announcement servers, cable modem termination systems and MTAs.
"With best-of-breed solutions, Net2Phone can offer service providers customized solutions to meet their needs to deploy telephony globally," said Net2Phone CEO Stephen Greenberg, in a release.
"Some operators will opt for PacketCable solutions in some markets and SIP in others," he added. "Other operators may choose to deploy both solutions in the same market, (with) the PacketCable solution as their primary line replacement service and the SIP offering as an alternative line for a teenager or home office." |
