Sprint's New ION products

Wed Jun 3 20:16:59 UTC 1998

On Wed, 3 Jun 1998, Kent W. England wrote:

> The most radical change for an established telco like Sprint is that Sprint
> has seen the light from the Great Crossover ahead and decided it is best and
> cheapest to run voice calls over packet or cell than over separate switched
> networks. It's getting to be a no-brainer decision, unless the guys in the
> domed building in WDC eliminate switched network access charges to the
> incumbents, which is apparently unlikely. So all voice moves to packet/cell
> ASAP to avoid switched network call termination charges as much as possible.
> Really a forced migration in terms of business costs, since the termination
> charges in the one to three cent/minute range are enormous compared to the
> cost of a packet voice call.

Right now most of the move to voice over packet/cell networks is
because people want to avoid termination and USF charges. The pace will
accelerate even more now that port density and port cost is approaching
that of TDM. If you wanted to buy a VOIP gateway 6 months ago you could
get around 24 - 96 ports with a port cost of around 2K. New hardware is
now becoming available that give you port densities greater then 2K with a
port cost of under $300 with SS7 support. In TDM networks you see port
densities as large as 100K with a port cost around $100. I don't think it
will be long until we see the same port densities with a port cost that is
under $100.

> --Kent

><>
Nathan Stratton				Telecom & ISP Consulting
www.robotics.net	 		nathan at robotics.net