VoIP helps solve voice challenge for WiMAX

WiMAX broadband wireless services are gaining significant traction in emerging markets around the world and this has some operators turning to Boucherville QC-based TelcoBridges for help in bundling voice on top of their high-speed access."We specialize in voice - it can be TDM or VoIP," Gaetan Campeau, president and CEO of TelcoBridges tells Network Letter. "For us, WiMAX is another way to deliver voice services."TelcoBridges' combined hardware (named Tmedia) and application software (called ExpresSCE+) allows for multi-vendor SIP, VoIP and TDM interfaces, and scalability to thousands of VoIP ports. As a result, WiMAX operators can increase the average revenue per user (ARPU) when delivering voice services. The company argues that the solution minimizes capital and operational expenditures by allowing for bundled voice and data offerings."We can start at a few thousand lines and scale up to hundreds of thousands of lines," says Pierre Cardinal, VP for business development at TelcoBridges. "We do not address full mobility, but will go wherever there are fixed-mobile deployments."It is estimated that usual data ARPU runs at about US$45 per month, and if voice is laid on top this can add another US$20 or more. But in order to capture that money, and not have the likes of Skype steal your minutes, the network operators have to acquire the capabilities."You need to put in the basic infrastructure," says Cardinal. "You can go with soft switch architecture from Cisco or Nortel, but there is a cost of entry that does not suit the small carriers. This is where we are appealing: customers can start small with our carrier-grade architecture, and grow with us."TelcoBridges, which sells mostly outside of Canada, is on a roll of sorts. The company won "Best of Show Award" at Technology Marketing Corp.'s Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO West 2008 for the Tmedia TMG3200, pre-packaged and ready-to-deploy media gateway. As well, at WiMAX World in Chicago TelcoBridges announced a carrier grade VoIP solution for WiMAX, which included value-added services such as voice mail, conferencing, fax server, IVR services, and IP-PBX, with a higher level of voice quality via WiMAX.Other vendors in the space include ZyXEL Communications Corp., Airspan Networks Inc., and Alianza Corp. That said, it is still a market in need of attention."Voice infrastructure for WiMAX is very immature," says Greg Collins, VP at research-firm Dell'Oro Group in Redwood City CA.Given WiMAX is primarily being deployed in emerging markets, Campeau says "The appeal in these markets has been the low cost of providing Internet access for those without pre-existing infrastructure. What we are doing is adding the voice services on the infrastructure that is being deployed; it becomes an incremental cost, yet is able to generate considerable revenue."

VoIP helps solve voice challenge for WiMAX

News | 10/31/2008 3:02 pm EDT

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