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VoIP Gateway Considerations
By John Pope
April 2010
With a challenging economy, it is important to focus on
retaining existing customers, reducing costs, and looking for new revenue
streams and services. Today, VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) brings many
new benefits; however, you also need the proper "gateway" to integrate new
features and services.
I see many VoIP implementations that fail to consider the use
of intelligent gateways over traditional trunking gateways that just convert
VoIP to TDM and vice versa. While trunking gateways are cheaper than
intelligent gateways, the advantages of using an intelligent gateway often
outweighs the increased costs. The following chart outlines the differences and
advantages of using an intelligent gateway over a trunking gateway.
|
Benefit /
Feature
|
Intelligent
Gateway |
Trunking
Gateway |
|
Improving
Customer Service |
|
Caller Name (CNAME) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Recording of
Complete Call |
Yes |
No |
|
Recording of
Multiparty Conferences |
Yes |
No |
|
Automated
Notification and Delivery of Messages |
Yes |
No |
|
|
|
Reducing Costs |
|
SIP
Refer/Transfer (TBCT) |
Yes |
No |
|
SIP
Diversion/One Number |
Yes |
No |
|
Number of Pops
Supported |
1024 |
5 (Typical) |
|
Nat Traversal -
Stun per Connection |
Yes |
No |
|
Trunking Limit
per Gateway |
16 Spans |
4 Spans
(Typical) |
|
VoIP Limit per
Gateway |
750 |
120 |
|
Fax Store and
Forward at Gateway |
Yes |
No |
|
Single Line
Transfers from Switch |
Yes |
No |
|
|
|
Increasing
Revenues |
|
Other Voice
Services (Skype/Yahoo/AIM) |
Yes |
No |
|
FoIP (T38 and
G711 per Channel/Call Dynamic) |
Yes |
No |
|
Scheduled
Routing Based on Date and/or Call |
Yes |
No |
|
Click to
Call/Caller Routing Based on Campaign |
Yes |
No |
|
High-Definition
Audio |
Yes |
No |
|
Video
Conferencing |
Yes |
No |
As shown in the table, the advantages of using an intelligent
gateway are many and should be considered when looking at future business
opportunities. The primary benefits include the opportunities of improving
customer service, reducing costs, and increasing revenues. As VoIP continues to
move towards the mainstream and customer needs continue to grow, it is important
not to make your sole decision based on your needs today but to also consider
the future.
John Pope is the president of
CenturiSoft and has been an early implementer of VoIP. You can contact John at
800-866-1929 or
john.pope@centurisoft.com.
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