Looking for a simpler, faster, more affordable way to bring VoIP to your small business?

Would you believe it if someone told you there’s a solution that allows you to use your existing copper phone wiring to deploy VoIP throughout your facility?

Yes, VoIP over twisted pair IS possible… with Phybridge’s (News - Alert) UniPhyer appliance.

UniPhyer is a “plug-and-play” appliance that lets companies deploy VoIP quickly, easily and more affordably using their existing telephone cabling. This compact, rack-mountable appliance, which connects to your IP-PBX (News - Alert), breaks the “VoIP deployment paradigm” by enabling businesses to create a “parallel network,” dedicated for voice, using existing telephone cabling. At the same time it facilitates a fully converged IP network, capable of supporting unified communications and all that good, productivity-enhancing stuff.

The appliance, which sits in the server closet, offers a single point of convergence to the data network – without requiring companies to actually pile voice onto the network. That’s an advantage because the convergence of voice onto a network can result in a variety of problems – quality of service issues, latency, interruption of data transfers, and, in worst case scenarios, complete network outages. Considering that so many companies are now starting to deploy hosted and SaaS (News - Alert)-based software and services for mission-critical operations, converging voice onto the network is only going to get more challenging.

Up until the introduction of the UniPhyer, companies had no way of repurposing twisted pair to deliver the productivity benefits of converged IP-based communications. The appliance, which comes in 24- and 48-port models, simply hooks up to your existing PBX or, alternatively, the main switch on the LAN, and from there the phones are hooked up to the UniPhyer. The appliance, which works with any VoIP service, delivers power over Ethernet over existing telephone cabling – thus solving the problem of how to power-up the IP phones. Phybridge claims it can be installed in as little as an hour, depending on the number of phone lines.

Thus the UniPhyer is a more affordable alternative to the traditional “rip-and-replace” approach of installing all new equipment and architecture – the model that Cisco and other telephony solutions providers have relied on for years to boost their profits and maintain what is tantamount to a stranglehold on the VoIP market. The appliance works with most vendors’ IP phones and IP PBXs – and the IP phones are connected by way of a special PoE adapter at each end point.

The UniPhyer holds a huge advantage for businesses located in older buildings (especially ones built with concrete walls and floors), as the cabling associated with network upgrades can often be the biggest cost and the main source of deployment headaches. With the UniPhyer, companies can use the existing cabling that is already installed (in there with the copper pipes, electrical cabling – maybe even asbestos and other bad stuff that you don’t want to open up).

Best of all, UniPhyer is certified interoperable with many of the best-selling PBXs – including systems from Avaya , ShoreTel (News - Alert), Zultys and Mitel (News - Alert).