Lucent Technologies, Inc. has begun shipping its long-awaited Internet Telephony Server.
The Lucent ITS this week became generally available in a turnkey package, with Lucent software loaded on a Compaq Computer Corp. ProLiant 2500 server running Windows NT. The Pentium-class server is outfitted with digital signal processing (DSP) boards from Analogic Corp. to packetize the voice traffic.
Pricing runs $2,500 to $4,000 per port, considerably higher than typical PBX ports but offering users the possibility of eliminating carrier tolls. The system is not designed to replace PBXs. Rather, the ITS is designed to enable users to lay off intracompany voice and fax traffic to the Internet while dialing outside the company in the usual way. In fact, the turnkey version of the ITS includes telephony interface cards from Natural Microsystems, Inc. to be loaded on a PBX to communicate with the Internet server.
Initial users are employing the system especially for international traffic, as a way to avoid paying notoriously high international dial-up charges. Nevertheless, for voice quality assurance the ITS can fall back to the public switched telephone network if the Internet connection gets choppy.
Several Lucent rivals are hustling to introduce similar products as users begin testing the waters of IP telephony. For example, Siemens Business Communication Systems, Inc. recently introduced the Hicom Xpress Telephony Internet Server with a fallback feature to the regular phone network.
A host of smaller vendors are pitching LAN-attached Windows NT telephony servers as entire PBX replacements. But most of those are limited to 16 or so ports and are aimed at small businesses.
Lucent first announced its Internet Telephony Server more than a year ago, at the fall 1996 Networld+Interop show in Atlanta. Lucent spent much of the past year testing telephony and DSP boards from various vendors before settling on Natural Microsystems and Analogic.
The Lucent ITS is compatible with the H.323 IP multimedia standard. According to Lucent officials, theoretically that means that in the future a user could establish a dial-up connection between the Lucent ITS and another vendor's Internet voice server. Currently, though, Lucent users must install the same server on both ends. Interoperability testing sponsored by the Voice Over the Net (VON) coalition is still needed to verify the H.323 standard's use in production networks, the Lucent officials said.
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