The Difference is Clear: HD Voice Provides Hot Opportunity for VoIP Resellers

It took years for my husband to convince me that HDTV was worth the extra investment. My thought was that if I had been fine watching “regular” TV my whole life, why would I want to change now? But from the first time I flipped channels between a football game on regular television, and the same game on HD, I never looked back. I am now 100 percent converted, and I can’t wait until our TV is too – I won’t even watch “American Idol” on regular TV now.

Of course, when any new technology debuts, IT professionals, gadget hounds and the layfolk of the land all step up offering a critical eye, salivating at the thought of pointing out any rudimentary aspects and abounding inadequacies. If you don’t know what I mean, ask VoIP – VoIP knows the feeling all too well.

It’s not news that VoIP resellers have struggled to get end users to abandon all landlines and trust their IP phones. There are issues with your connection going down and other concerns, like security – but why worry about all of these, if the quality isn’t as good? Why not rely on the PSTN so that your conversations don’t sound like they are coming through the Matrix, packets getting jumbled and corroded in the journey?

That’s where HD voice comes in, providing quality that doesn’t just compare with a traditional landline conversation, but actually is much better. Although Polycom Inc. introduced the revolutionary technology back in 2006 with its SoundPoint IP 650, VoIP resellers now say it’s a hot opportunity to upgrade current customers and wow new ones.

A consumer VoIP report from IDC explains that PSTN “toll quality” is limited by bandwidth (there is a 3.3kHz limitation within TDM networks), and is not reflective of the true potential quality. “IP-based voice communications can take advantage of technologies that may require additional bandwidth but can deliver voice quality that is superior by several orders of magnitude,” explained the report. “For example, the ITU’s G.722 wideband speech codec for IP-based communications captures 7kHz of bandwidth. This is more than two times the amount of speech data captured in a TDM-based call.” The additional bandwidth increases the flow of data, therefore upping the clarity. {vpipagebreak}

Some resellers might be concerned about bandwidth requirements for HD voice and fear they’ll be limited by the customer’s infrastructure; but Jeffrey Pearl, managing partner of Denver-based reseller IP5280 Communications LLC, said HD requires only slightly more bandwidth, which all of his customers’ infrastructures can handle.

Pearl said HD voice is the buzz with VoIP resellers right now, and that as market acceptance of VoIP grows, this is a good opportunity to get in on. IP5280 conducted a survey in January and February of 200 Colorado business users to compare HD voice to traditional phone service in a side-by-side “taste test.” More than 95 percent of respondents expressed overwhelming enthusiasm for the clarity and voice quality of IP5280’s HD voice, Pearl said.

Click here to watch a video of the survey.

The applicability also is far ranging: “I work with businesses overseas on a daily basis and the clarity of the HD phone really helps in situations where English is not a first language,” said Karl Johnson, president and CEO of Escendo Corp., a Littleton, Colo.-based company that provides analytical business solutions to Fortune 1,000 companies.

To capture its own part of the HD voice opportunity, IP5280, a reseller of New Global Telecom’s VoIP services, announced this week the launch of its HD Voice, a high-definition phone service that offers business users twice the voice clarity, greater noise reduction and more vibrant, life-like conversations than traditional telephones. The service uses phones developed by Polycom with Polycom HD Voice, and they operate on a BroadSoft IP application platform.

“IP5280’s VoIP service has improved the number of phone features for business users and reduced the costs compared to the old phone company, and now IP5280 is the first to bring high-definition phone service to Colorado small and medium-sized businesses,” said Pearl. “The increased intelligibility of IP5280 HD Voice enables more natural conversations, which boosts recognition and can help enhance productivity.”

IP5280 offers a range of unlimited local and long-distance VoIP calling packages and data solutions, including hosted VoIP and IP business trunking services, which deliver full user mobility and email integration. Advanced features include sending voice mail to an e-mail inbox, simultaneous ring on multiple phones, automatic logging of calls, auto attendant call greetings and routing, and traditional features such as three-way and conference calling. {vpipagebreak}

Meanwhile, Herndon, Va.-based reseller Apptix has been selling the Polycom HD phones on the BroadSoft platform via New Global Telecom since November, and said HD voice allows the company to provide higher-quality services to its customers. “The quality differences, in a general sense, are perceptible, but you really get the biggest, most noticeable benefit when speaking HD-to-HD,” explains Leigh Henry, director of product management at Apptix. “SMB customers are looking for the solution that will provide them with the most value. Since the value really is in HD-to-HD, uptake by our customer base has been moderate to date. Larger customers with more than one location will get the most out of the capabilities,” she explains.

Henry said that adoption will continue to increase over time as the awareness of HD voice quality grows. “I liken this to when I bought my first HDTV – I didn’t have high-definition satellite even, but I knew I would acquire it in the future as more channels became available in high-def,” said Henry. “Most businesses plan to keep their devices for a lengthy period of time.”

Apptix voice services include standard voice mail, voice mail to e-mail, call forwarding, call transferring, auto attendant and three-way calling functionality; mobility support through find me/follow me and remote office features; a Web portal interface for self-configuration and provisioning of voice services; corporate voice networking to support multiple locations and free on-network extension dialing; an integrated Outlook toolbar to provide instant access to calling features (including click-to-dial); and Polycom’s standards-based SoundPoint IP 650 and IP 550 desktop phones.

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