Quintum Technologies and TMC announced at the Spring Internet Telephony Conference and Expo that a US Navy laboratory was selected as the winner of their joint VoIP Becomes Reality contest.

The contest submission from Callis Goodrich, an engineer in the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego (SSC San Diego), described how the Navys Automated Digital Network System (ADNS) used Quintums Tenor switches to eliminate outmoded, inefficient time division multiplexing (TDM) voice network connections and to converge both voice and data communications over a ship-to-shore satellite link.

The Tenor switching platform reduced network bandwidth required for ship-to-shore VoIP calls. With their converged network for voice and data traffic the Navy was able to dynamically allocate the limited available network bandwidth via the satellite link between voice and data. SSC San Diego also used the Tenor modem relay feature so that calls and fax transmissions could be switched from G.723 to G.726 as necessary for secure encrypted telephone calls. Tenor switches successfully supported encrypted STU-III calls over IP at 24 kbps gross bandwidth. They found call quality for secure phones via VoIP was as good as or better than via TDM.

Quintum and TMC also selected four entries as Honorable Mentions. Syed Muhammad Zakaria Al-Hady of the Learn Foundation, a charitable foundation in Bangladesh, implemented several internet cafs through which people could make phone calls from remote villages to the UK, the USA and Middle East.

The next was earned by Faraz Ghani of Strategez, LLC in Dubai, which sought to implement a ship to shore VoIP system between oil exploration ships in the Gulf of Oman and the local offices. They connected calls via IP to the GSM and fixed line subscribers, locally in the UAE, and internationally to the PSTN from the PABX.

The third Honorable Mention was submitted by Gabriel Prodanescu, of DataTEK Group, in Romania. DataTEK implemented Internet Cafes with a multi-tiered partner structure, using Vox Carrier, Inc. as the service provider, and Dialexia, a Canadian reseller to assist in the deployments. DataTEK supplied all the necessary software, as well.

The last Honorable Mention was from Virgilio Almeda of Creative Technologies in the Philippines. His company implemented a VoIP network in a Bank with IP phones and a competitors Call Manager. The design provided direct dialing from the IP phones in the home office to the analog phones in branch locations, hop off calling in the remote offices, and fax transmissions.

We were amazed at the level of interest that this contest generated, said Chuck Rutledge, Vice President of Marketing for Quintum Technologies. We had a very difficult time selecting the winner and Honorable Mentions from the many submissions we received. The variety of applications submitted really reflects how far VoIP technology has advanced.

We are pleased to be the winner of the VoIP Becomes Reality Contest, stated Callis Goodrich of Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego, Chief Engineer of the US Navy Automated Digital Network System (ADNS). The equipment can help us to test and deploy a robust communication environment which is required to economically and efficiently support complex military operations.