VoIP – One Piece of the Puzzle

The International Packet Communication Consortium is a leading international industry association dedicated to accelerating the deployment of VoIP and packet technologies and services over converged wireless, wireline, and cable broadband networks. Business Management asked President and Chairman Michael Khalilian for his thoughts.

Why are operators looking to move to IP?

Why would you change from black and white TV to colour? Because it looks better, you have more features, etc. It’s much the same with VoIP in telecommunications. You are getting a more efficient bandwidth from your network, as well as crisper sound quality, more applications and enhanced services that you couldn’t previously get from traditional TDM networks

Are you seeing any particular trends in the market right for VoIP – either by way of demand or the issues that companies are having with the technology?

It’s important to remember that VoIP is the application, not the technology, and is the first in a new generation of IP applications. As such, it is also a test for the convergence from traditional networks to these new IP networks. From it, the consumer demands an application that will give them the same look, feel and features of their traditional telephone service, and much more. However, in satisfying these requirements, service providers are faced with a suite of challenges and regulatory issues.

Today, the common language shared by every nation in the world is no longer the dollar, it is the internet, and that commonality between global networks brings with it new opportunities as well as fresh challenges. Opportunities open up to make use of those technologies, while we see challenges arise both from using that technology and from trying to converge other services such as mobile telephone and cable TV with IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).

Are there still problems with the service?

Of course, but while the traditional telephone service had a period of integration of around 50-60 years, VoIP is still only six or seven years old. Even so, we’re already putting a lot of pressure on it to be problem free. Certainly if you look at how many challenges still existed for regular telephone service seven years after its implementation, VoIP has come a long way.

We are solving problems in VoIP applications every day and, as we move forward, are stabilising the core of the service, the security of the service and its features. But we are also seeing new challenges. VoIP as an application is, after all, only one piece of the puzzle. The high-speed internet that VoIP resides on is another piece, and both features are not necessarily currently offered by the same service provider. So dealing with that is one of the biggest challenges the industry faces.

Another challenge is making sure that service stays on. If the power goes off, you don’t have high-speed internet, and therefore you also don’t have a telephone service. So it raises the question of who will supply that back-up line.

I understand the technical aspects of accounting, billing and charging are still problem areas for VoIP service providers. How are these being addressed?

The majority of VoIP service providers in the US don’t want to send their customers a physical paper bill, like a traditional phone service company would normally do. They want their billing to be automated, enabling payment direct from the customer’s bank account by credit card or direct debit, and also for customers to be able to view and pay their bill online.

As far as I am aware, most of the service providers in the US are addressing that challenge and the solutions are working well. They are, of course, continually aiming to improve the service, by adding more features and improving security, but the systems work well and are part of the provisioning of the billing system for a new generation of VoIP service providers.

Another challenge in billing for VoIP is accurately measuring the service that is being used by customers. The billing systems must be able to measure the service automatically and convert it into monthly costs. That has been a challenge here in the US and the service providers have responded by instead coming up with long distance flat rates for bundled services for long distance, and in some cases for international rates. That’s the short-term fix. The long-term fix is developing a better tool to measure the minutes and convert the service into a fee.

What standards or regulations exist in the industry for VoIP – is there a recognised set of best practices, for example?

There are essentially two groups of regulations. The first relates to the technology – the industry bodies’ protocols and standards that products, applications, software and hardware must meet in order that different products will work together.

The second group of regulations is governmental, those that are set for the safety of the consumer – 911, operator assistance, etc. These currently follow best practices, but the US government from the FCC side came in and said they want to try to tighten the process for the 911 service. The first part of this involves trying to notify subscribers and consumers about which services they actually have, whether they have 911 etc. These changes are in the process of happening now and an October deadline has been set in the US whereby every VoIP consumers should be notified about whether they have 911 capability or not by their service provider; they also need to confirm that they have understood that.

Furthermore, by the end of November, the FCC will require that VoIP service providers provide 911 service. Further changes are likely in the future, with the FCC also considering how to regulate the security and to internet better and manage them with best practices.

Security has also traditionally been a sticking point with VoIP. Is this still a concern?

I don’t believe there is a big issue with security; while VoIP does involve data it’s not banking data or information that people would want to steal. There is much more of an issue today with the security of your wireless device than anything else. So the security problem is one that exists across many applications and we will have to address each one as appropriate.

If security isn’t one of the biggest challenges ahead for VoIP, what would you say are?

I think the biggest challenge for VoIP is going to be less about the technology involved and more associated with the business part. It is important that we educate the consumer so they understand that this is a telephone service on the internet with specific needs and requirements that not everyone understands yet. In order to ensure the consumer configures their devices properly to enable them to work in parallel, they need to be pretty well educated. This is going to be a challenge for both the service provider and the consumer market. Consumer education is, therefore, the number one priority.

Tied in with this is the need to address customer expectation – ensuring they know, for example, that when the power goes off, the phone isn’t going to work, because there will be no internet access. We have to both set those expectations and to educate customers about what to do if the power does go off.

The second challenge facing VoIP service providers is going to be integrating the technologies provided by the multiple vendors; features, billing system, gateway, all of these must integrate together. After we’ve addressed the basics, we will then jump to the in-hand service – wireless, IMS and so on.

You mention IMS – is this what’s next?

Yes, next will be the integration of the multimedia, telephone service and other applications. The closest thing we have to this today is IP Multimedia subsystem (IMS), which integrates the vision of your wireless and your telephone line, IP TV. They can all reside on top of each other and will be working together. Providing this all-in-one service is going to be a big challenge for the industry as we move forward.

Michael Khalilian is Chairman & President of the International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC). He also serves as Chief Technologist/Advisor and Board Member to service providers, including such companies as, eLEC Communications Corp./VoX Communications, Kancharla and American Cable services.

Khalilian was one of the founding members of the Packet Multimedia IP Carrier Coalition and the International Softswitch Consortium (ISC), which later evolved into the IPCC. Now Chairman and President of the IPCC, he is also an appointed member of the Telecom Executive Council for the US.

Michael Khalilian has more than 20 years of engineering, operations, applications, business development and management experience in telecommunications, broadband and multimedia. Khalilian has worked with organizations ranging from service providers such as Time Warner, and NTT, and equipment manufacturers to government agencies.