Voice over IP (VoIP) is now widely acknowledged to be the communications technology that will supplant the PSTN. Indeed, businesses are lining up to replace their aging TDM systems with new converged IP-based networks that can handle both voice and data traffic, not to mention video. If you don’t believe it, pay careful attention to the new Cisco phones at many of your favorite restaurants and retail outlets. Or while you’re in front of the television, notice the Ojo video phone from Worldgate used on CBS’ NCIS and FOX’ 24, or the Nortel (News - Alert) handsets seen on CSI: New York. Anywhere you go, you are likely to see IP phones in use.

 

VoIP is one way businesses are able to meet the challenges of outshine their competitors in whatever space they’re in. However, having to worry about managing their VoIP networks is something that can counteract the productivity gained from VoIP in the first place, as many companies simply do not have the resources to dedicate to the phone system. Which is why hosted solutions have gained so much popularity recently. They address the communications needs of businesses, without requiring a major investment in manpower or capital or time to maintain the platform.

 

However, it then becomes incumbent on those hosted service providers to ensure their networks are robust and reliable enough to adapt to the changing requirements of today’s multidimensional businesses. This includes having the latest technology in place to ensure the availability and security of IP services they are delivering to their customers — and it is a set of services that is constantly growing and maturing and being delivered to an ever increasing number of end devices, all of which only adds to the complexity of the hosted system.

 

To ensure that its service delivery capabilities are not compromised, PingTone Communications, which provides a hosted Cisco IP telephony service to businesses in a variety of vertical markets, has selected NexTone’s IntelliConnect System to support its growing business.

 

PingTone is experiencing strong uptake of its hosted VoIP service and, as such, needed to further increase the efficiency and scalability of its network to keep up with demand. The IntelliConnect System from NexTone includes NexTone’s Session Border Controller (SBC), Multiprotocol Session Exchange (MSX), and Real-Time Session Manager (RSM). Together, the products are designed to ease the overall management of network resources for real-time services and applications (i.e., end user policies, service connectivity, multi-vendor interoperability, traffic management, etc.).

 

Individually, the SBC provides NAT and PAT traversal capabilities, crucial to ensuring seamless VoIP connectivity; while the MSX brings routing features that allow create more efficient call handling. With the MSX, PingTone is able to route traffic more efficiently for more reliable and higher quality connections, based on established call completion rates, route profit, and route availability. In addition, the RSM provides dynamic policy management tools for enhanced QoS and SLA management, including a wide range of reporting and statistical tools. 

 

“We need the right equipment to make our network run efficiently… and selected NexTone’s technology because of its reputation for high-quality products and service,” explained Robyn Smith, vice president of service operations for PingTone. “We also don’t have to worry about scalability, because NexTone can support a variety of VoIP services as we continue to rapidly expand our customer base.”

 

Combined with the high quality Cisco telephony system offered by PingTone, the NexTone InterConnect System ensures that PingTone’s is able to deliver business quality VoIP calling and unified messaging capabilities to all of its customers, even as its user base continues to grow.

 

To further establish the stability of its service delivery platform, PingTone’s network engineers have also complete advanced certification training coursed at NexTone University, hosted by NexTone at its Gaithersburg, Maryland headquarters. The added education ensures that the engineers are fully equipped to handle the delivery of PingTone’s current and future IP applications across its network.