This article originally appeared in the May 2011 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY.
Enterprises are embracing SIP and flattened, consolidated and extended, aka FCE, voice networks with a vengeance. This rapid adoption rate is being driven by typical returns on investment of 12 to 24 months. The emergence of hosted E911 network services has removed an important barrier to the adoption of SIP and FCE voice networks by offering reliable, cost-effective 911 call routing for these networks.
SIP networks also are resilient and scalable, and these qualities are encouraging highly distributed enterprises with hundreds or thousands of offices to eliminate local trunks at each site and connect all branch offices to the core with SIP.
Historically, telecom administrators and network architects have been reluctant to eliminate local trunks for two reasons. First, most local offices want to show a local telephone number, so as they call clients in their territory, they project a local presence. Second, local trunking has historically been required to connect 911 calls with the local public safety answering point.
With SIP technology, the localization issue has been solved. Local offices that rely on an enterprise core thousands of miles away to complete their calls can present a local number to their local customers. Using SIP trunks, calls to the local number are then routed wherever necessary.
Today’s new breed of E911 network services solves the second issue. With FCE, all 911 calls are captured at the enterprise data centers where they can easily be sent to an E911 network service that is designed to route emergency calls to any PSAP in the U.S. based on the caller’s location. These hosted E911 network services eliminate the need for capital investments for hardware and are billed as a monthly expense based on the number of emergency calling numbers and the number of location records stored.
Now, like the other ROI-based business dynamics driving the rapid adoption of SIP and FCE, add E911 network services to the list of ways to optimize your enterprise network.
Nick Maier is senior vice president of RedSky (News - Alert) Technologies (www.redskyE911.com).
TMCnet publishes expert commentary on various telecommunications, IT, call center, CRM and other technology-related topics. Are you an expert in one of these fields, and interested in having your perspective published on a site that gets several million unique visitors each month? Get in touch.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
