* Voice on the Net show is set to open in Boston this week
The Voice on the Net show is set to open in Boston this week, featuring VoIP products and services aimed at helping smaller companies, or those with branch offices, set up and manage packetized voice traffic.
In its ninth year, VON is expected to draw about 300 exhibitors, 330 speakers and an estimated 8,000 attendees. The show will take place in the midst of a torrent of growth in almost all sectors of the VoIP industry, from business and consumer VoIP services to enterprise and carrier gear, industry analysts say. Statistics from Telegeography Research and Dell’Oro Group indicate the magnitude of this growth:
* 6.9 million VoIP subscribers added in the second quarter of 2006.
* $607 million in VoIP services revenue in the second quarter of 2006, an almost 200% increase from the second quarter of 2005.
* $500 million in IP phone sales in the same quarter this year.
* 100 million registered users of Skype, a 92% increase from a year ago.
* $2.5 billion spent on carrier VoIP gear in 2005, a 50% increase.
In contrast with the grandiose numbers, small businesses will be the focus of many product launches. Vendors also are targeting offices with several new all-in-one IP PBX boxes aimed at sites with five to 100 employees. Also expected are an array of tools to help companies manage and control VoIP traffic on the LAN and WAN, and wirelessly.
Viola Networks plans to launch its NatAlly Lifecycle Manager 5.1, a VoIP management and monitoring appliance that features a new service-level agreement (SLA) index feature. The SLA index lets users measure the voice quality of groups of IP phone calls or PC softphone calls from a particular site – such as a remote office connected via a WAN, or a specific LAN subnet with a departmental phone group. Unlike past Viola appliances, which could measure overall VoIP quality or individual-phone voice quality, the SLA index gives managers a more accurate view of call quality and potential network trouble spots that may affect VoIP calls, the company says. The box starts at $1,200.
Also on the management front, Apparent Networks is announcing a partnership with Nortel, in which Apparent’s AppCritical VoIP network-management software will be bundled and integrated with Nortel’s line of large enterprise and small-office IP PBX platforms – which include the Succession Communication Server 1000 and the Business Communications Manager. The AppCritical software provides network assessment and fault detection to a Nortel-based VoIP infrastructure, without agent software needing to be installed on IP phones, gateways or other gear.
Covergence is introducing a new Session Initiation Protocol management device that trunks SIP traffic through firewalls and across IP networks. The Eclipse CX-50 is a smaller version of the company’s previous gear and economically enables SIP support in small offices. Previous boxes were designed for data centers. Eclipse devices also handle SIP signaling and media encryption, virus scanning, QoS control and identity-based access control, among other features. Pricing has not yet been released.
The device is intended to trunk calls between SIP-based IP PBXs while maintaining QoS to ensure voice quality and encryption to maintain privacy. It can perform these functions between PBXs and Microsoft Live Communications Servers as well.
The company also is announcing interoperability between its gear and Linksys VoIP routers to encrypt and authenticate VoIP generated by small and home offices.
Another small-and-midsize business-focused vendor, Allworx – which lists Versace, John Deere and the Red Cross among its customers – is launching its SIP-based 24x IP PBX product, aimed at sites with as many as 100 users. The device includes ports for an an integrated T-1/PRI voice circuit, and an Ethernet port for connecting to IP-based services. The 24x has basic, small-office telephony features (conferencing, hold, transfer, multiline support), as well as an integrated e-mail and Web server. The 24x box starts at $2,000 for 24 users.
Senior Editor Tim Greene contributed to this story.
