FAQ: Telco, What's in it For Us?

Q We telcos have invested a lot in VoIP with IMS, softswitches and SBCs on top of our IP networks, but that revenue is not growing. And for the Internet channel we give vast bandwidth for small flat rate. What can we do to not starve?

The Internet+ model addresses just that: You can increase your earnings, while giving your subscribers what they need and want. Sell the priority bytes for good usage and offer users better real-time communication than POTS!

Q And how much will that cost the telcos this time?

You will directly save on both capex and opex! The investment will probably be paid back by eliminating IMS, softswitches, SBCs and their associated cost and licenses.

Q And will we need a different infrastructure for fixed and mobile?

No, that is the beauty of IP – a cloud. The infrastructure is the same! You just place the TOQrouter at different positions. For fixed, you provision the TOQrouter to the customer LAN – your demarcation point and handoff of the access and service.

In the mobile network, you place the TOQrouter at the point where the firewall for the user is today. That is the point where the individual Internet channel to the smartphone is created.

The infrastructure is the same, simple and straight forward; DNS and ENUM and Management system using a PKI structure with TOQrouter certificates for Trust and Security. No softswitches or central SBCs are needed and you get IP reliability back.

Q I get it! The telcos’ demarcation point – the place where we hand over our access and deliver the service. Smart, there the TOQrouter measures the subscriber’s usage so we can bill!

Yes, and more important at that specific point: Between the telcos’ global or public network and the subscribers private domain, i. e. the user’s LAN or the smartphone. That is also the point where we can:

• Handle NAT/firewall traversal so the real-time person-to-person communication reaches the users. And the TOQrouter can deliver all SIP communication, not just voice.

• Prioritize real-time traffic over data and also make sure such traffic gets the right quality over the telco’s global networks.

• When phone numbers are used, check the telco’s database (ENUM) to find the SIP address to the called party.

• Route the call to the called party (instead of routing the call to a central softswitch, that routes to another carrier’s softswitches – In a SIP network, no “switches” are needed!).

• Route calls for old PSTN phones to the telco’s PSTN gateways, or to a SIP proxy that selects the correct PSTN gateway, or into the softswitch you may already have.

Q Will the TOQrouter deliver ordinary data Internet access also?

Sure, that is the best way to use the TOQrouter – to provide a full Internet+ access for both data and real-time communication.

Q And incoming calls? DNS points out my softswitch as the registrar that knows the IP address to the users.

The SIP registrar can be anywhere in a SIP network! The TOQrouter includes a SIP registrar which you can point DNS to for each subscriber. Or you can use any registrar: in your existing softswitch, or in the user’s IP-PBX. Best is to use in the registrar in the TOQrouter which can fork calls to all devices that the user has registered. The TOQrouter can also forward calls, provide voice mail and do many things you find in a softswitch or a PBX.

Q Ah… and can we then even give our customers usable SIP addresses (like email addresses), in addition to the E.164 phone number?

Yes, exactly!

Q For what do I need my central softswitches, SBCs or IMS then?

Nothing! They were placed there to replicate the PSTN structure where you had a separate network and sent calls between operators to able to bill. Such networks actually destroy the whole Internet idea of having a common network where you address each data packet directly to its destination.

Q Can we then save the failover system we planned to purchase to get our central systems reliable? We were also just specifying that the customer boxes, the CPEs or IADs shall monitor our softswitches so failover is not even noticed.

Without massive central elements, there is nothing to failover. You get the good reliability of IP itself! You have seen that it is the Internet that works after disasters and catastrophes.

Q You mentioned video and UC? When will that come with Internet+?

It is there from the beginning! We simply do not destroy those possibilities, like application specific networks (IMS, softswitches etc.) do.

With Internet+, we deliver real SIP between the users and between servers and their users. That is very important! Had we not delivered HTTP undistorted between the browser and the Web server, we would not have had the Web! Today’s SIP delivery is like if the HTTP was limited by the network to only deliver the old videotex service.

The TOQrouter is a standards compliant SIP proxy, that transports all SIP (both signaling and media) all the way to the users in their private domain. Then, we can connect all UC or real-time communication, including video, IM and presence, globally between all devices that use SIP. We have one network between everyone for all types of all real-time communication person-to-person. (B2BUAs and gateways break such delivery – only standards compliant SIP proxies must handle the SIP signaling between endpoints.)

Q Will we then have to roll out more bandwidth, new fiber and faster routers?
 No, that it the beauty of your IP network. Just turn on diffserv in the routers, and the important real-time traffic can get priority, while other traffic comes  a moment later.
Q But we cannot use the Internet, which is always full with data and file transfer, can we?

Yes you can! That is actually the best, since you have most bandwidth for the Internet. Real-time prioritized and charged traffic will only take a fraction of the available bandwidth. You get paid for the already available bandwidth, just because it is prioritized!

Q Do you mean we can sell available bandwidth, without new cost? :-)  

Yes, you can! New earnings!

Another benefit of using an extended Internet is the interoperability with the world of Internet connected devices. With the Internet+ model, we get the same global SIP interface everywhere – allowing all SIP applications. Having Internet devices gatewayed into a new network, would give limited functionality and an application dependent network again.

Q And the old voice calls (my current revenue), how do TOQrouters get the calls to PSTN connected phones?

The TOQrouter simply routes PSTN calls to the telco’s PSTN gateways, or to a telco SIP proxy that selects the best PSTN gateway, or into a softswitch that a telco may already have.

Q Our users often ask for the ability to send SMSs (texting) directly from their PCs or from a fixed phone, instead of having to use their mobile phones. We had such gateways, but had to close them because we lost revenue. Can we introduce such “old” service in the fixed network and charge the users the same as when using their mobile phones?

Yes, SMS is easy to implement over IP – just reopen your SMS gateways again! The TOQrouter will report the SMS usage in CDRs just like any other SIP-based traffic and you can charge as for a mobile phone.

Q Is there a better way for mobility solutions also? That is very complicated and costly in both our PSTN and our VoIP networks.

That is automatic in a proper SIP network as the Internet+! You can use the Web via HTTP everywhere, can’t you? With real SIP delivery, you can simply use your SIP devices everywhere, even those connected to company PBXs. SIP services can also be moved around and located anywhere.

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