Hi steve, let me post this first, and then I'll get to your reading material <g> I had it in notepad memory and din't want to lose it...
All,
Soon, the traditional common carriers who have served our needs for the past 110
years with cupric oxide cages will have a new category for transporting VoIP, once
they get their new SS7-VoIP- seeking-engines installed. First implementations will be
in the private sector, i.e., supporting a new breed of virtual private nets in enterprise
networks. Then in the public network.
They're going to call this new category the Public Routed Telephone Network, or
PRTN, an offspring of the PSTN. Sorry, there will be no pure plays available in this
sector. The makers of these platforms are the same old Internet equipment players
who we've all known and probably profited from in the market, all along, and they all
make enterprise (as well as carrier) gear. Soup to Nuts, or, as I like to call them, S &
Ns.
Who will be these new VoIP service providers or ITSPs? Forget ITSPs. The ones I'm
referring to are our favorite whipping posts, none other than the ILECs/CLECs and
established IXC Carriers. You get the same stodgy and long- depreciating 'old,' mixed
in with the exciting and awe-inspiring 'new.'
That's how business is usually done when it's done responsibly, preserving investments,
even if it means biting the bullet and waiting until the time is right. That's how it will be in
this sector as it evolves. The only question will be, how will the new administrative
burdens in this new duplicitous environment be delegated? Will all new players share
equally in the costs of universal directory issues? Local Number portability headaches?
Heck, I won't even ask about the other, more well-known universal services matters.
If anyone has a hard time believing this PRTN thing, then ask yourself: Have you seen
any VoIP Press Releases lately that speak about SS7? And then ask yourself: Why are
all of the router manufacturing giants scurrying like a teen-age girl, two hours late for
her prom date, to come out with SS7-enabled VoIP platforms? Who on Earth uses
SS7, anyway?
You have to be a registered carrier, or have privileges that entitle you to a carrier ID
code to even be able to deploy SS7 links to an SS7 provider's cloud! Is the picture
starting to come into focus yet?
Incidentally, the carriers couldn't care less if they used PCM, TCP/IP or plain old
UDP. Cards fit into slots either way. When it comes to return on investment, UDP
packets will do just fine. But it has to work well enough, first, so that folks never
disparage it with terminology that includes words like "terrible" and "sucks."
One last point: While none of this portends wealth and riches for pure play gateway
manufacturers, it needn't spell doom, either. However, it should strongly suggest that
gateways need to be interoperable, not only with each other, between makes, but
between themselves and central office devices and ISP voice routers in the future.If
not, they will become stranded assets.
An analogous situation to this exists today, indeed it has existed for a long time, and
that is between the PBX (and its associated T-1/PRI interface), and the central office
Class 5 switch. Gotta talk the same language. That's what it's all about.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
