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Networks Make the All-IP Transition [Rural Telecommunications](Rural Telecommunications Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) From the Internet's early days, the virtues of packet switching were clearly evident. Developed for data transfer, IP proved to be an efficient, reliable means of transmitting all kinds of communications-voice, images, video and more. It was only a matter of time, observers said, before dedicated networks disappeared and voice and video became applications running over IP networks. Two decades later, that time seems finally to be arriving. While cable TV providers (that didn't own telephony switches) began by offering VoIP and are now beginning to transition to video over IP, telcos (most of whom didn't own cable TV infrastructure) started by offering IP video and are now transitioning to VoIP. Three Repeche of Tnaneibioning According to Jim McLaughlin, director of solutions marketing for GENBAND (Raleigh, N.C.), a provider of IP telephony equipment, the transition to IP telephony has three aspects-call control, IP access and interconnection. McLaughlin said there is "unanimous agreement" about replacing time-division multiplexing (TDM) call controllers with IP softswitches, and this part of the transition is well underway. TDM call controllers are hard to find and maintain today, and they use vastly more space and power than softswitches. By replacing them, telcos can often get rid of their smaller switches altogether and send all traffic to the main switch; this "switch collapse" can yield great cost savings. In addition, IP call control offers revenue-enhancing features and services. "The killer application driving the IP transition could be voice," said Kevin Morgan, director of marketing communications at equipment vendor ADTRAN (Huntsville, Ala.). Morgan cited a feature that is as yet little usedwideband audio, or HD voice. "The public has gotten used to mobile-quality voice, but when hear HD quality, you think, 'Wow, that's different,"' he said. "You could really market that." The second part of the transition, IP access, involves installing IP switches, routers and application servers, and supporting multiple services over a single infrastructure. This aspect of the transition is not as far along as call control, McLaughlin said. In general, the transition to IP access occurs in conjunction with the buildout of broadband networks. Some telcos transition to IP voice access when they upgrade their copper networks. All-fiber networks usually involve IP voice by default, and independent telcos now serve about 1.1 million North American homes with fiber, according to research firm RVA, LLC. However, not all telcos take advantage of network upgrades to implement IP voice access, especially when only part of the network is involved. Some fiber to the home (FTTH) deployers reconvert IP voice back to TDM either at the ONT (customer-premises equipment) or the OLT (central-office equipment), according to David Russell, solutions marketing director at equipment vendor Calix (Minneapolis, Minn.), so they can continue providing a single voice solution. "IP will be more efficient, but you have to make the transition," said Geoff Burke, senior director of corporate marketing at Calix. "Ultimately, there's the very difficult challenge of ripping the Band-Aid off." The third aspect-interconnection among carriers' networks via IP instead of the public switched telephone network (PSTN)-is the biggest unfinished task. Some nonregulated interconnections are already handled via IP but most calls still travel on the PSTN. To interconnect via IP, telcos will have to invest in session border controllers and other equipment. However, the technical challenges pale in comparison with the regulatory hurdles. Though the PSTN will certainly be replaced, the rules for interconnecting in an all-IP world are still uncertain and the subject of much debate. Until these rules are clarified, McLaughlin said, "rural carriers can't afford to make precipitous decisions." Because the transition is still ongoing, most telcos today operate a patchwork of legacy and IP technologies and convert calls from IP to TDM and back again. The complexity of this system and the cost of supporting multiple technologies prevent them from reaping the full benefits of IP voice. Some features, such as wideband audio, can't be used unless there is IP at both endpoints. Nevertheless, many telcos have already achieved impressive benefits. Nonbh Central Telephone Cooperative North Central Telephone Cooperative (NCTC; Lafayette, Tenn. ) is transitioning to IP voice as part of its FTTH buildout. NCTC's service area was hard hit by the loss of manufacturing jobs, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nancy White said upgrading the communications infrastructure was the best way to "bring the service area into the 21st century." Over the last four years, NCTC has built fiber to the premises, upgraded its core network and changed out its computer systems. It replaced its old TDM switches with soft switches and "watched the electric bills drop like a rock," according to Clint Carter, NCTC's director of technology and new service introduction. Even legacy copper customers are now being transitioned to IP voice services, using the Media Gateway Control Protocol. The project is now far enough along for the company to begin marketing new services to businesses and educating them about what these services can do for them. White hopes advanced business services will help local companies succeed and grow, attract new businesses to the area, and allow schools and hospitals to operate more effectively NCTC's recently launched hosted PBX product will allow businesses to dispense with the on-site hardware of physical PBX systems while adding new features and functionality. One business customer plans to use the hosted PBX-which can be accessed off-site-to replace its after-hours customer service shift. White mentioned one customer's enthusiasm about a voicemail-to-email function that lets her see quickly which calls require immediate answers. NCTC's smallbusiness customers are also adopting audio conferencing and video calling. In 2011, NCTC built a hardened facility that houses both a softswitch and a data center. (The old central office is being modified to use for colocation, equipment testing and computer training. ) At the data center, the company offers not only hosted PBX services but also hardware as a service, software as a service, infrastructure as a service, and backup services. Nearby businesses can connect directly to the data center via NCTC or iRis Networks (a cooperative middle-mile network of which NCTC is a member); businesses anywhere can connect to it securely over the Internet using a virtual private network. The local E-911 facility plans to migrate its system to NCTC's new data center and run it on NCTC equipment. ITS Telecom "We've virtually recreated ourselves," said Jeff Leslie, CEO and president of ITS Telecom (Indiantown, Fla.), describing his company's transformation as a result of building underground fiber infrastructure both inside and outside its service area and implementing IP-based services, including highspeed symmetrical Internet access and hosted PBX services. Because its new equipment takes up so much less space than its old switches, ITS converted its central office to a highquality data center, where it offers colocation for businesses' mission-critical servers and backup servers, as well as disaster recovery services. Leslie explained, "In the past, people were focused on being able to get to a data center in Atlanta or Houston for backup ... but those connections get disrupted in a hurricane, and the airport shuts down, so they can't access their backed-up data. With our underground fiber, they can back up to our data center and then come to work at our disaster recovery desk." ITS has become the outsourced IT department for many small businesses in the area, landing maintenance and service contracts from companies that do not have internal IT staffs. Now, it is preparing to start offering virtual servers and firewalls so business customers can use thin-client desktops in their offices and do their actual processing at the ITS data center. IP-based hosted PBX systems are "feature rich" in comparison with traditional business voice systems, Leslie said. In addition to the voicemail-to-email feature mentioned by NCTC, Leslie cited as popular features the ability to schedule multiple greetings, the ability to program complex call-forwarding rules, the ability to ring multiple phones at once and the ability to relocate phones anywhere in the event of an emergency. "Every customer has dozens of its own particular needs," he added. "We can help people find new solutions to the problems they had." For example, one business customer used to maximize the ring volume of the phone in the customer's airplane hangar so that someone working there would be sure to hear the phone ringing and run to pick it up. Now, calling the hangar rings the cellphone of every employee on duty, and no one has to run. ITS still has work to do. Most of its residential customers still have traditional phone service, which is converted to SIP (and then back again when it gets to the PSTN). In addition, the company hopes to add more cloud-based business services to its portfolio-though, like NCTC, ITS sees the need to educate businesses about how they can benefit from cloud-based services. Ultimately, Leslie said, ITS could even sell hosted PBX and other services to customers outside its network, as long as they have reliable enough bandwidth. Envenbie Enventis (formerly HickoryTech, in Mankato, Minn.) was a pioneer in selling hosted managed voice services to businesses, having started 11 years ago. Today, its SingleLink unified communications solution provides not only IP telephony but many other IP-based services, including unified messaging, call center features, call recording and fax. "It's a popular offering," said Carol Wirsbinski, Enventis chief operating officer. "What's really nice is that it scales with the customer. You can deploy it for a customer with 10 seats up to thousands." Enventis deploys allIP networks, usually fiber, in greenfield builds, in competitive local exchange carrier areas and business districts. In the remainder of its traditional service areasouthern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa-where residential lines are still mostly copper, Enventis has embedded technology to deliver IP services, including IPTV. The company gains efficiencies by using the same equipment to deliver services over different network infrastructures. Cost savings aren't a major driver for IP services because the company is still effectively running two parallel networks-though according to Troy Johnson, vice president of engineering and network operations, once Enventis reaches its long-term goal of all-IP everywhere, it should see operating expense savings. For now, the offering is driven by business demand. "They're voting for IP services," Wirsbinski added. "The industry is moving toward the cloud, and we have valuable expertise that will lead us into cloud-based services as customers require them. We already have email hosting today and a number of service offerings. ... We want to deliver quality services; we'll layer applications on top of what our customers have today, and they'll continue to grow with us for the long term." Masha Zager is a freelance writer. Contact her at mashazager@ bridgewriter.com. 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