Well, I can't scan this in so I will copy it for you all...
Page 102, Computer Telephony mag, January 1998 issue. CT demo Fall 97 highlights. lists all Best of Shows of which one, of course in Franklin. here goes
title: Franklin's Fine IP Telephony Gateway Shines
Franklin Telecom (Westlake Village, CA-805-373-8688) let us make some calls from their pedestal using their new Tempest Voice-over-IP Gateway. harry called his wife in New York, Russ called Franklin's offices in California, and Zeppy called his bookie in Hoboken.
The voice quality sounded good. At least, as good as, or better, than nearly all of their competitors - certainly the ones using the same 8 Kbps G.729 standard voice code. The Franklin secretary who answered my call could hear me and I could understand her. Latency wasn't bad for an Internet (non intranet) call. We had a full-duplex, if a bit choppy intelligible conversation. Johnny No-Knuckles gave Zippy pretty much the same feedback.
Franklin's box has some neat features we haven't seen on other IP Telephony Gateways. We set a compromise between latency and quality (by hitting `'*4'' we "turned down" latency during a call or sent more 30ms frames per IP packet). One lost / delayed packet, however, and more voice is lost with more frames per packet (e.g. it sounds choppier). We could volume up and down. And a simple *8 allowed us to make a another call of Franklin's IP voice network - FNet.
Price is a further advantage for Franklin's Tempest. At an estimated $19,000 per box, or between $850 and $1000 per port, they compare favorably with their IP telephony gateway rivals. use of their proprietary T-1 interface cards (Franklin's been in the T-1 biz a long time) helps, they say.
The Tempest runs on a robust Linux OS and includes a Ethernet WAN NIC (but a not router) and a DSP resource card. 24 ports per chassis for now.
That is the article. Also has a picture of the Voice Gateway Server with the caption underneath,
"The main argument for using Franklin's Tempest Voice-over-IP gateway si toll-bypass for calls within the enterprise, PBX to PBX. Besides eliminating long distance charges, businesses can axe access charges to get to the CO for local calls (also avoided on intra-company calls through the Franklin box), Intrine's One Number Find Me enhanced service platforms will use Franklin's Tempest. Voicemail and fax broadcast will also be coming soon to the box".
That's it folks. Lots of good meat to digest in here. Remember, they are going for business traffic, not necessary to sell these boxes to the WilTel's, WorldCom's of the world. There are not enough ports in them yet. George |
