The principal that makes fiber optics possible, the guiding of light by refraction, was first demonstrated in Paris, in 1840.
A patent for the first wireless telephone was issued by Nathan Stubblefield, in 1908.
“Freephone” service, the precursor to Toll Free service, was introduced by the Post Office, in 1960.
The first modems were introduced in 1960.
Instant Messaging first appeared on multi user operating systems like CTSS and Multics in the mid 1960’s.
Email started as a way for multiple users of MIT’s time sharing mainframe computer to communicate, in 1965.
Caller ID was first invented by Theodore Paraskevakos, from Greece, in 1968.
Ethernet was developed by Xerox between the years 1973 and 1975.
VoIP was first discussed in a paper titled “A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection” but the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, in 1974.
The earliest routers were introduced by Xerox, in 1974.
Voicemail was introduced by IBM and Xerox in 1975.
IBM introduced the first portable computer, the 5100, in 1975.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
6 Reasons to us a Telecommunication Agent
• Agents can act as your customer advocate. Carrier Direct Reps don’t always act in your best interests. They are compensated by the amount you spend and continue to spend on your telecommunications. Agents are more likely to look for ways to save you money because they need to show their value.
• Agents have experience with multiple providers. Maybe there’s a carrier that’s offering attractive pricing but you’re unsure about their service. Most likely an agent would have experience with the lesser known carrier, has clients using their service, and will be able to ease your fears.
• Agents will provide you with independent information. A carrier rep is not going to point out his or her company’s flaws. Because an agent represents multiple providers, they don’t care which carrier you choose and are more likely to disclose information about a certain company’s weaknesses.
• Agents can provide you with more visibility. Some carriers allow agents to channel integrate with direct reps. This puts your agent in all the meetings related to your account, offering a level of visibility you wouldn’t receive if you dealt directly with the carrier’s account team.
• You get more but you don’t pay more. With an agent you receive expertise, customer service, product support and project management; but you don’t pay for these extras, the carrier does.
• Agents can save you time and free up your staff. Instead of having your staff members meet with multiple reps, from multiple providers, let an agent shop your services for you. Agents represent multiple providers; they can inventory your existing services, conduct audits, they know what questions to ask and what to look out for.
• Agents have experience with multiple providers. Maybe there’s a carrier that’s offering attractive pricing but you’re unsure about their service. Most likely an agent would have experience with the lesser known carrier, has clients using their service, and will be able to ease your fears.
• Agents will provide you with independent information. A carrier rep is not going to point out his or her company’s flaws. Because an agent represents multiple providers, they don’t care which carrier you choose and are more likely to disclose information about a certain company’s weaknesses.
• Agents can provide you with more visibility. Some carriers allow agents to channel integrate with direct reps. This puts your agent in all the meetings related to your account, offering a level of visibility you wouldn’t receive if you dealt directly with the carrier’s account team.
• You get more but you don’t pay more. With an agent you receive expertise, customer service, product support and project management; but you don’t pay for these extras, the carrier does.
• Agents can save you time and free up your staff. Instead of having your staff members meet with multiple reps, from multiple providers, let an agent shop your services for you. Agents represent multiple providers; they can inventory your existing services, conduct audits, they know what questions to ask and what to look out for.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Eleven Ways to Save on Your Telecom Spend in 90 Days or Less
1. Request a complete spreadsheet inventory of your voice and data services from your carrier.
2. Review the inventory to see if you are being billed for unused services.
3. Eliminate unnecessary wire maintenance plans.
4. Make sure you’re receiving package discounts for your phone line features.
5. Negotiate a volume discount on your analog lines.
6. Reclassify your circuits to “Interstate” to avoid S25 surcharges.
7. Make sure the number of analog lines you have equals the number of Customer Access Line or Federal Access Line charges.
8. Call each of your phone lines to see if someone answers. If there’s no answer, check to see if it is a modem or alarm line. Disconnect lines that aren’t in use.
9. Request a usage study from your carrier to determine if you have the proper amount of lines or trunks. Your PBX vendor may be able to provide a similar report.
10. Match up your carrier contracts to their bills. Make sure there are no discrepancies.
11. If the long distance portion of your bill totals $500 or more at any one of your locations, consider implementing a long distance T1.
2. Review the inventory to see if you are being billed for unused services.
3. Eliminate unnecessary wire maintenance plans.
4. Make sure you’re receiving package discounts for your phone line features.
5. Negotiate a volume discount on your analog lines.
6. Reclassify your circuits to “Interstate” to avoid S25 surcharges.
7. Make sure the number of analog lines you have equals the number of Customer Access Line or Federal Access Line charges.
8. Call each of your phone lines to see if someone answers. If there’s no answer, check to see if it is a modem or alarm line. Disconnect lines that aren’t in use.
9. Request a usage study from your carrier to determine if you have the proper amount of lines or trunks. Your PBX vendor may be able to provide a similar report.
10. Match up your carrier contracts to their bills. Make sure there are no discrepancies.
11. If the long distance portion of your bill totals $500 or more at any one of your locations, consider implementing a long distance T1.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Hard to Make a Business Case for SIP
SIP trunks are touted as a better alternative to PRI circuits. That might be the case in certain situations but don’t expect to see businesses rushing to make the change. MPLS was a true improvement over Frame Relay, and worth the added expense. SIP trunks are scalable, faster to deploy and can utilize your company’s existing IP network. SIP service offers the use of remote DID telephone numbers, so a company could have phone numbers, from area codes across the United States, ring to a central location. But, despite what the carriers claim, don’t expect to see a cost savings with SIP.
One of the main arguments for SIP is that you don’t have to order SIP trunks in groups of 23, like PRI’s. So say you need 30 call paths, with SIP, you order 30. With PRI’s you would need two PRI’s, providing you with forty six call paths, which might seem like over kill. But let’s do the math. The typical SIP trunk cost $30 per month. In this example, 30 would cost a company $900 a month. Then there is the cost of bandwidth. Let’s say a company is going to order a separate internet circuit to support the SIP trunks. In this example, we’ll say that the carrier is using G.729 so a single T1 could support the 30 SIP trunks. If we use $450 a month for price of the T1, the total with SIP is $1,350 a month. Compare that to average cost of two PRI’s, which would be about $1,000.
There are cheaper versions of SIP. Typically they ride on a customer’s provided internet access. The problem here is that there can’t be true Quality of Service (QoS) with this set up. The only way to achieve that is to order internet access and SIP trunks from the same provider. Doing so would keep the voice traffic on the carrier’s private network, where your voice traffic can be assigned priority over your data traffic and your voice traffic never hits the public internet. To accomplish this, you need to pay carrier pricing.
Even then the savings aren’t significant. With our 30 call path example. The cheapest price I’ve seen for call paths are $10 per month, per path. That equals a total of $750 per month (30 x $10 + $450). That’s a savings of $250 a month for a significant reduction in call quality. And that’s overlooking that most of the providers pricing SIP at this level limit the amount of included minutes and charge per minute when you exceed those minutes.
For more information or a quote for any telecommunication service, visit www.carrierbid.com
One of the main arguments for SIP is that you don’t have to order SIP trunks in groups of 23, like PRI’s. So say you need 30 call paths, with SIP, you order 30. With PRI’s you would need two PRI’s, providing you with forty six call paths, which might seem like over kill. But let’s do the math. The typical SIP trunk cost $30 per month. In this example, 30 would cost a company $900 a month. Then there is the cost of bandwidth. Let’s say a company is going to order a separate internet circuit to support the SIP trunks. In this example, we’ll say that the carrier is using G.729 so a single T1 could support the 30 SIP trunks. If we use $450 a month for price of the T1, the total with SIP is $1,350 a month. Compare that to average cost of two PRI’s, which would be about $1,000.
There are cheaper versions of SIP. Typically they ride on a customer’s provided internet access. The problem here is that there can’t be true Quality of Service (QoS) with this set up. The only way to achieve that is to order internet access and SIP trunks from the same provider. Doing so would keep the voice traffic on the carrier’s private network, where your voice traffic can be assigned priority over your data traffic and your voice traffic never hits the public internet. To accomplish this, you need to pay carrier pricing.
Even then the savings aren’t significant. With our 30 call path example. The cheapest price I’ve seen for call paths are $10 per month, per path. That equals a total of $750 per month (30 x $10 + $450). That’s a savings of $250 a month for a significant reduction in call quality. And that’s overlooking that most of the providers pricing SIP at this level limit the amount of included minutes and charge per minute when you exceed those minutes.
For more information or a quote for any telecommunication service, visit www.carrierbid.com
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