IP convergence and your telecom contract
August 25, 1998
Network World via NewsEdge Corporation : IP
voice/data convergence naysayers have it easy. On the
surface, the phenomenon seems easy to debunk.
The popular press spent the first half of this year
glorifying the new IP telephony providers because they
could carry phone calls f or "only" 7.5 cents per minute.
But everyone in the trenches realizes most corporations
are already getting regular telephony for less.
Besides, I've yet to hear of a network manager handing a
card to his CEO and saying, "Punch in these 31 numbers
to reach our new Int ernet carrier, and then talk slowly
and loudly to the other CEO so he knows we're offering
$10 million, not $10 billion, in that tak eover deal."
So can you sit back and let convergence hype just roll
over you until it goes away? Not by a long shot. There's
real action in voice over IP today. And the real action
has nothing to do with numbers like 7.5 cents per
minute. Move the decimal point over and it's m ore like
making calls for 0.75 cents per minute by avoiding the
tolls of the legacy carriers and the newbies.
Users are finding that it doesn't take an announcement
of voice-over-frame relay services from AT&T, MCI and
Sprint to get the convergence market going. For you,
the real hang-up could be in something much closer to
home: your telecom contract.
For years carriers have promised to shave rates just a
little more if you sign a long-term voice contract with a
rising minimum expe nditure each year of the contract.
But go to move your voice traffic to frame relay or ATM
and you may suddenly find you've violated the contract
because your telephony spending will have shrunk.
So if you have any interest at all in voice/data
convergence, here are some talking points for your next
carrier negotiation, which I hope is coming up soon:
1. The major carriers now all want to be your voice and
data carrier. Fine. Tell them the key to your business is
the data network. Any carrier that prevents you from
adding features to your enterprise data network because
the contract obligates you to spend X bazillion dollars
on voice tolls could be replaced.
2. Watch for extra costs such as premiums for
souped-up, voice-enabled frame relay virtual circuits
that supposedly get priority ove r other circuits. Those
fancy virtual circuits are all well and good, but many
experts believe the key is prioritization schemes in
customer premise equipment. Don't default your WAN
design and traffic modeling to the carrier.
3. Finally, tell carriers that preset minimum annual
expenditures that rise each year of a multiyear contract
don't make much sense anymore - even without IP
convergence. Here's the long-distance carriers' dirty little
secret: By federal mandate, every July 1, the access
charges they pay the local exchange carriers go down.
So quite possibly you ought to be paying less, not more,
even if your voice traffic never migrates.
Rohde is a senior editor with Network World. He can be
reached at drohde@ nww.com.
<<Network World -- 08-24-98, p. 26>>
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