Businesses may still have office telephone systems using the traditional copper-wire telephone network, but they are on the way out just as surely as residential landline phone service.
Cellular and IP-based calling is quickly replacing the analog landline on all fronts, from business phone systems to residential phone service to equipment communications in the server closet.
Nearly 40 percent of American households are now wireless, according to the Center for Disease Control, and over-the-top messaging apps are gaining ground on cellular networks over the use of calling minutes. LINE alone, a popular messaging app that also allows voice-over-IP calling, has 400 million registered users, to say nothing of Microsoft’s Skype and Facebook’s (News - Alert) new messaging acquisition, WhatsApp.
When it comes to remote equipment communication, copper wire also is being replaced by out-of-band management solutions run over the cellular network.
“For enterprises, the end of circuit-switched telephony spells big changes in how infrastructure is procured and managed,” noted a recent blog post by Opengear, which makes a wide range of out-of-band (OOB) solutions that can leverage both 3G and LTE (News - Alert) cellular connections for communication.
“Rather than run expensive copper lines into a data center or server closet and hook them up to analog modems, administrators can use them to tap into existing cellular coverage, simplifying and streamlining data center and IT operations,” added the Opengear (News - Alert) blog.
For businesses that are concerned about the possibility of cellular disruption, out-of-band solutions also can provide secondary ways to connect to with equipment, including Wi-Fi.
By using cellular and cable-free solutions, businesses both can gain better access to remote equipment and provide redundancy that ensures equipment stays within communications reach no matter the situation on the ground.
Cellular and IP-based communications delivers added benefits beyond simplified administration and extra redundancy, too; it is far more flexible, and better enables remote updates, troubleshooting and flexible. Not to mention being less expensive in many cases over its copper-wire counterpart.
Whether remote equipment or the office phone, landlines are out and wireless communications is in, as the way to communicate.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson