It will be called Cable & Wireless IP Voice and the company says it will offer a better quality of service than is possible with VoIP connections that run over the public Internet. Cable & Wireless said the service is aimed at businesses that have operations at multiple sites and use separate private networks for voice and data at present, and who want to merge their traffic onto a single IP-based network.
Such a converged network should be easier to manage, and could also help companies to deploy services such as video-conferencing and unified messaging.
The telco expects voice to be the "killer application" that drives UK businesses towards the adoption of IP. "The next step in their journey to an integrated communications infrastructure is to migrate their voice networks to IP," said Royston Hoggarth, Cable & Wireless's UK chief executive.
Hoggarth claims that Cable & Wireless is the first UK telco to offer a managed VoIP service for businesses. IP Voice will be formally launched in early July.
Many other telcos are taking VoIP increasingly seriously. BT last week announced that it is upgrading its network to support IP, which will eventually mean that every BT landline will offer Internet telephony -- although this may not always be obvious to the end user.
Several companies are already offering VoIP service in the UK to both individuals and businesses, including On Instant, Gossiptel and IPspeak.
Another contender entered the market earlier this week. Noodle will offer free calls to other VoIP phones, but subscribers will need to pay a monthly subscription of at least £4.95 per month and will also need a broadband line.
Talkback
Hi Graeme
alwaysON first to market with onverged IP voice telephony
I hate to rain on Cable & Wireless' parade but it is not the first company in the UK to offer converged voice and data in the UK. Our converged private IP virtual networks have been in use by major UK businesses such as Balfour Beatty,and government bodies such as Ofsted amongst many others since 2001.
Cable & Wireless is also not the first company to deliver IP voice and IP telephony to enterprises over converged IP VPNs. That honour also goes to us. Our IP Centrex service was formally launched to the UK press in 2003 and was widely reported in the trade press. We have rolled out the largest UK hosted IP telephony/virtual telephony (IP Centrex) for one of our customers, Avanta--over 5,000 seats across 20 sites.
Our IP Centrex is also more cost-effective and more sophisticated than anything can Cable & Wireless offer. Unlike the C&W offering for mega-corporations, it is suitable for all sizes of businesses from small and medium enterprises to major corporates.
Warm regards
Ken Mann
Marketing Manager
alwaysON
www.alwaysonvpn.com