VoIP Gateways Article

It's a seldom-considered, and sometimes poorly-understood, part of any good voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) system: the VoIP gateway. This powerful technology is starting to gain some new ground as VoIP in general makes itself a greater part of the market. Recently, D2 Technologies and Technicolor took to the Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) (MWC) 2017 stage to show off a new VoIP gateway and demonstrate conclusively the power these systems could offer users.

The D2 / Technicolor (News - Alert) demonstration, meanwhile, revolved around the Technicolor MGA110x gateway, which used D2's vPort Gateway software as its base. With this combination, users get access to a new ability to use mobile broadband connections to offer up VoIP, as well as its close mobile cousin voice over LTE (News - Alert) (VoLTE). This is especially useful in places where fixed broadband isn't immediately available, and there are more places than you'd think in which fixed broadband isn't available.

VoIP gateways in general offer a similar service. With a VoIP gateway, users can take legacy telephone connections—including E1 lines, T1 lines, and primary rate interface (PRI) systems—and convert to a modern VoIP connection using session initiation protocol (SIP). The term “gateway” applies here as the voice input is converted through a couple of different connections, going through a time-division multiplexer (TDM) system to SIP, or in reverse, or even from one SIP connection to another. The VoIP gateway simplifies the process.

With more and more users making the migration to VoIP service as Internet connectivity improves and makes it possible for voice to share a data connection, VoIP gateways are stepping in as an excellent means to establish this service in short order. VoIP service has already drawn a lot of attention from businesses thanks to a combination of low prices for long distance—sometimes it's even free under some circumstances—and international calling, as well as for the slate of extra services that can be offered as part of VoIP. Individual users haven't exactly missed these points either, especially those that do a lot of long distance calling.

With VoIP gaining on several fronts, the tools to make VoIP happen, therefore, are all the more valuable. D2 and Technicolor are demonstrating this clearly, bringing out a new VoIP gateway at a time when VoIP service is more popular than ever. That's a great way to take advantage of a growing market trend, and in the process, push toward making your product or service considered indispensable by users.

This combined effort should prove successful, and it's a fairly safe bet that we'll see more like this coming out in the weeks ahead. VoIP gateways are an increasingly powerful part of the overall VoIP market, and we ignore these at our own risk.