Viable VoIP
We'd be hard-pressed to eliminate any of these vendors based on their responses, though it's tempting to toss those without SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) support. But we didn't, because we didn't specify SIP support as a requirement, despite our well-documented partiality for standards compliance. Given that this is our first look at lower-priced VoIP systems, we decided to judge products strictly on their functionality. The next time we do a VoIP RFP, we likely will mandate SIP support, since these systems will give you more phone options, as well as better integration with and more choices for third-party applications. Note that the proposals from Interactive Intelligence and Zultys are pure SIP.
Based on the responses, Siemens' HiPath 3000 IP System earned our Editor's Choice award. Its price is easy on the wallet, and it has an excellent presence application, is a full-featured PBX and has the best conferencing system of those we reviewed. The full vendor responses to our RFP can be found online here.
Siemens' proposal was the least expensive, at $84,134 including all the basics and more, especially in terms of presence. Siemens also has the widest codec selection for both its basic and executive phones, which support the G.711, G.729 and G.723 codecs (see "VoIP Codecs,"). All three codecs are also supported with VAD (voice-activity detection) with silence suppression. This feature can cut bandwidth utilization by transmitting data only when speech is present.
Siemens was the only vendor to point out that it inserts "comfort noise" locally to make up for the background noise not transmitted during silence suppression. This is good--most people use background noise as a cue that they're still connected. Siemens also has some of the least expensive phones, proposing the optiPoint 410 for both basic and executive-level phones for $182.50 each including software. This helped keep the total cost of its system low. However, the vendor also proposed this model for conference phones, and that hurt its phone ratings in relation to rivals that proposed Polycom's conference phone, which has become the industry reference.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
