On the up

VoIP technology is quickly gaining momentum, providing an effective and convenient mode of communication for a steadily growing market; last year, an estimated 11 million people used the technology for at least some of their calls. Early predictions suggest that VoIP may even surpass the traditional telephone service sometime down the line. Michael Khalilian, Chairman and President of the IMS Forum and board member of VoX Corp., tells CXO about the rise of VoIP and it’s likely significance in the future.

Voice over IP emerged in 1990s but had a slow start. The challenges for the wide-scale deployment of the technology fell into multiple categories. The first challenge for VoIP deployment was dependent on the quality of the high-speed internet. If you have high-speed internet through the cable TV platform, then you will have quality voice over broadband. The second challenge with the technology was that dialling emergency access (911 and E911) and operator assistance proved difficult for the provider.

Today, most of these challenges have been resolved to different levels of success. As a result, consumers can now use VoIP as a replacement for their primary line and not worry about some of the regulatory issues. They just have to worry about which service provider will maintain the service quality and provide customer service.

If you were to ask me what technology I think is likely to be dominating the future of telecommunication, then I would say that wireless mobile is going to be the leader because consumers today are increasingly going mobile. People are used to having communications in place when they are walking out of their home to their office, on the train or whilst in their car so they are more used to mobility. As a result, the success of modern applications is increasingly going to be dependent on how they can combine the quality of service with increasing content and first-class service delivery.

Eventually, we will go back to the personal communication system (PCS) concept that we had a few years ago. Your mobile, your home and the telephone service that you have at your office will all become the same. So, for instance, when you are going from your office to your home you will transfer your mobile service to your home service through Wi-Fi. However, to take advantage of Wi-Fi and the efficiency of the telephone service, you will have to be using the internet. The internet will set up your VoIP service ability, so mobile, Wi-Fi and VoIP will all become combined. Therefore, the future is mobility.

Security is always an issue whenever you combine a lot of technology with public internet access. However, despite certain security issues, there are always effective security solutions. Many companies are enhancing security with VoIP softswitch systems and networks, and this technology is continually maturing every day. We are moving forward and seeing more and more of these types of products addressing the security concerns.

I would like to invite the industry to work together with the IMS forum to identify the challenges. The IMS forum is a non-profit association that internationally assesses vendors and service providers who employ the technology and therefore understand the challenges. Consumers can take advantage of the technology without so much of a concern. We have to work together, and work together as a team with a different perspective coming from the service providers, vendors and regulators. The consumers are going to be defining who will be successful and who will not be.

The mission of the IMS Forum is to accelerate the adoption of IP multimedia subsystems (IMS) by providing an environment for discussion and resolution of real-world implementation issues relating to interoperability, best practices and standards-based architectures in the application layer. In addition, the Forum will provide consultancy to the industry, service providers and vendors on best practices and approaches for IMS rollouts and interconnectivity and convergence. The work of the IMS Forum builds on the groundbreaking efforts of the International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC), the International Softswitch Consortium (ISC) founded in 1998, and the IP and Multimedia Carrier Coalition created in 1996.?

To join IMS Forum please visit www.IMSForum.org