If you're a service provider looking to break into the UM business or an enterprise in search of an outsourcer to implement a UM solution, CyberTel's offering is worth a look. We tried out CyberCom, which brings UM to VoIP environments based on the proposed SIP standard. This is an alternative for those who want to go the IP Centrex route and bring along advanced UM services.
SIP is emerging as the standard of choice for VoIP phone access. The assumption is that an environment with a SIP proxy, SIP gateway and SIP phones exists. CyberCom, which runs on Sun Microsystems Solaris, provides voicemail and integrates with an existing POP3 e-mail system (IMAP4 support is in the pipe).
We were given a pair of Pingtel Model PX-1 SIP phones with which to try the service, which was set up on a server within CyberTel's network. For e-mail, we set up a Yahoo mail account that required us to activate POP-mail retrieval. We used the Web, via CyberTel's supplied FreeCom Java application, to send the login names and passwords of our Yahoo account to the CyberCom server. The disadvantage is that our e-mail passwords were replicated on the remote server, a potential vulnerability. We then had CyberTel activate our account. This setup isn't very scalable, but CyberTel is working to streamline the provisioning process.
We could see voicemail messages with .wav file attachments listed in our Yahoo account. Clicking on a message fired off our Winamp player, and the sound quality was good. We could access our e-mail from the SIP phone or any legacy phone that could dial in to the CyberCom server. We experienced some delays as the text-to-speech processor appeared to be formatting a message.
One nice feature is that the service gives you the choice of listening to e-mail or voicemail. When we received a voicemail or Yahoo e-mail, the MWI (message-waiting indicator) turned on, though there was a long delay after receiving an e-mail. Another problem was that, after we read our messages via e-mail, the MWI on the phone would not turn off until we checked our messages via the phone. CyberTel says this is due to Pingtel's SIP implementation and it will have a workaround.
When listening to e-mail, we found understanding the summaries difficult because the speech was fast and there was no pause between the subject and time stamp. In addition, the time was delivered to the 100th of a second, which was confusing.
We also tried out CyberTel's fax service. We were able to send and receive faxes with ease using its Java-based Web application. Incoming faxes were converted to .tiff format and were easy to read when they arrived in our e-mail box.
CyberCom, CyberTel, (732) 796-1000; fax (732) 796-9068. www.cybertel.com
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