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SIP and Open Standards Featured Article
January 04, 2008
Education, Compliance Key to SIP Trunking Growth
By Rich Tehrani, CEO, Technology Marketing Corporation
Atlanta-based Cbeyond (News - Alert) serves customers in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Denver and Los Angeles, San Diego, Detroit, and San Francisco via a 100% VoIP
local phone network. The company is very excited to be launching its 10th market — Miami — in 2008.
local phone network. The company is very excited to be launching its 10th market — Miami — in 2008.
Greg Rothman is director of SIPconnect Development for Cbeyond, and he sounds pretty excited about Miami too, but from a different perspective. Rothman will be participating in several speaking opportunities at the upcoming ITEXPO (News - Alert), taking place January 23–25 in Miami Beach.
I caught up with Rothman and asked him several questions about Cbeyond, the state of SIP Trunking, and what trends are driving the IP communications market.
communications market.RT: What trends are you noticing in the communications market?
GR: Cbeyond has driven the SIPconnect SIP trunking standards initiative, which is one of our fastest growing services. Our SIPconnect service connects directly to next generation IP-PBXs via Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) and provides the small business market with a solution that delivers business-class voice quality, extensive calling features and significant cost savings.
trunking standards initiative, which is one of our fastest growing services. Our SIPconnect service connects directly to next generation IP-PBXs via Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) and provides the small business market with a solution that delivers business-class voice quality, extensive calling features and significant cost savings.Also, it is exciting to see the impact wireless technologies have had on our market. We offer mobile services through an MVNO partnership, and 40 percent of our new customers subscribe to our mobile service offering. Cbeyond has already implemented Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) applications. For example, we offer a single voice mailbox for both mobile and desk phone, which relays a Message Waiting Indicator (MWI) on both devices.
partnership, and 40 percent of our new customers subscribe to our mobile service offering. Cbeyond has already implemented Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) applications. For example, we offer a single voice mailbox for both mobile and desk phone, which relays a Message Waiting Indicator (MWI) on both devices.RT: Did 2007 finish the way your company expected?
GR: Cbeyond successfully expanded our portfolio of productivity-enhancing applications to give our customers access to big business communication tools that don’t require large IT staffs to implement or expensive resources to maintain and operate. Two of the services that we rolled out in 2007 included a laptop access service that provides nationwide mobile broadband access and an Integrated Voicemail service. This new Integrated Voicemail service also includes a unified messaging feature, which allows customers to access and manage their voice messages from their e-mail inbox.
RT: Is 2008 going to be a better year than 2007?
GR: Cbeyond is launching Miami, our tenth market, in Q1 2008. We are excited by Cbeyond’s continued growth and believe the small business market will continue to adopt IP-based solutions that give them access to tools that help them compete with larger enterprises.
RT: What technologies have altered the market the most?
GR: VoIP technology has altered the market most. Since our inception in 1999, our mission has stayed the same — to deliver “big business” communications tools to small business customers at prices they can afford and that we can deliver profitably. We’ve done this by creating a new network using next generation Voice over IP technology and a soft switch architecture. In fact, we pioneered that technology with Cisco (News - Alert) to build the first 100% VoIP carrier grade local telephone network. Because our technology allows us to provide both voice and data services over the same network — it gives us “disruptive” economic and operational advantages over traditional telecom providers. As a result, we’ve been able to dramatically reduce what it costs for us to provide those services — and we take those savings and reinvest them into the areas that speak to our customers.
RT: How has Skype changed the telecom market?
GR: Skype is helping drive the adoption of softphones, because people will trial them via the Skype service. Skype is an alternative to consider if voice quality (QOS) is not important. On the consumer side, it offers value; however, since most SMBs require QoS and they are typically calling people in which a connection to the PSTN is required (SkypeOut), there can be significant costs involved. Thus, we expect most SMBs (especially ones that focus on offering professional services) to continue to use business-grade voice solutions.
RT: How will Apple, Google and Microsoft each change the telecom space?
GR: Google and Apple are tremendous brands that will likely bring innovation to the telecom market — specifically for consumers. However, the SMB market is a much different marketplace that will have significantly different requirements both in terms of strategic focus and operational discipline.
Microsoft is a strong player in the enterprise market. Translating this success into the SMB market will likely require strong distribution and development partnerships.
RT: What are the brightest spots in your business going forward?
GR: As a company and with respect to SIP Trunking specifically, Cbeyond is experiencing rapid growth due to its thought leadership, laser focus on the SMB market, proven sales model, award winning customer service, industry leading customer retention, and strategic partnerships.
RT: What are the biggest threats you see to your company’s success?
GR: With regards to SIP Trunking at Cbeyond, the three biggest hurdles that need to be overcome for it to continue to rapidly grow:
- VAR Education — it is critical that VARs understand voice and data on the customer premise or team up together since this is a converged solution.
- Firewalls — there are LAN assessment tools and alternatives like hosted NAT traversal; however, SIP-aware firewalls that properly support ALG need to become commonplace.
- SIPconnect Compliance — while there is very strong initial support for the SIP Forum program that began in September 2007, companies (i.e., PBX developers, SIP Application Server providers, Service Providers, and other equipment and software vendors that develop solutions used in SIP Trunking) that are not already compliant need to embrace this industry level effort.
RT: What will conferees learn from your ITEXPO conference session this month?
GR: I will be a panelist on the SIP Trunking for the SMB panel as well as The Service Provider Perspective panel at Ingate’s SIP Trunking Workshop. I will also be the TMC University Instructor for the SIP Trunking course. Cbeyond put its first BeyondVoice with SIPconnect customer on-net in January 2005. With three years experience, I hope conferees get an in-depth understanding of SIP Trunking, the SIP Forum’s SIPconnect specification, and why SIP Trunking is experiencing such rapid growth.
RT: Who should attend?
GR: PBX Developers, PBX Dealers, Interconnects, IP Consultants, Data VARs, and anyone else that wants to get involved in this important industry trend.
RT: What unique perspectives will you offer?
GR: Cbeyond deployed its first SIPconnect customer in January 2005. If someone wants to better understand SIP Trunking, the best place to learn about it is from a company like Cbeyond that drove the industry specification. We worked with Cisco, Avaya (News - Alert), Mitel, Broadsoft, TalkSwitch and others on the initial development. Then, the development effort evolved into a SIP Forum working group, which enabled its widespread industry acceptance.
RT: What is the most exciting market change we can expect in communications in technology in 2008 and beyond?
GR: We believe the small business market will continue to adopt IP-based solutions that give them access to tools that help them compete with larger enterprises.
RT: Please make one surprising prediction for 2008.
GR: We believe that SIP Trunking will capture a much larger “piece of the pie” in 2008.
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Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor in Chief at TMC. In addition he is the Chairman of the world’s best attended IP Communications event, Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO.
Mark your calendars! Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO — the first major IP communications event of the year — is just days away. It’s not too late to register for the event, which takes place in Miami Beach, FL, January 23–25, 2008. The EXPO will feature three valuable days of exhibits, conferences and networking that you won’t want to miss. So what are you waiting for? Sign up now!
