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Jim Barthold
EmpowerTel Networks Inc. has taken the voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) switch to its next level by adding built-in interactive capabilities that leverage IP's flexibility.
"It bridges the functionality required to manage traffic coming in from IP or TDM (time division multiplexed) clients into an IP packet format," explained Raj Saksena, VP-business development. "The usage-based billing paradigm will move into one which says you pay for what you use, vs. you pay for it as a monthly flat fee."
The connectionless network, he said, would dynamically allocate bandwidth, a big change from the old system that required direct connections between users.
"When I'm making a phone call, I haven't reserved any resource unless I really need it," he explained. "Similarly, any user on the network who has subscribed to it can get access to the service without me engineering my voice to have a very expensive solution so I must allocate a resource for every subscriber who wants the service."
Saksena said the service would be voice-invoked.
"While I'm talking to you on the phone, if, for some reason, I want to go retrieve an e-mail, I say, 'Hold on a second while I check this out,' then I've essentially put you onto virtual hold because there's no connection between you and me on the network, per se, besides packets flowing when I'm in connection or discussion with you.
"When I'm not speaking I'm basically in a silent suppression modem, which means I'm not really using up bandwidth," he said.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company, which spun off earlier this year from Lara Technology Inc., received $54 million in funding from a group which included Sony Corp.
By using the network more efficiently, the EmpowerTel system will allow subscribers more freedom in the way they invoke services and the way those services are billed.
"My bill at the end of the call would have my bill-per-minute charge for me making a phone call, along with any service that I invoked while I was on the call," he said.
All these interactive capabilities, he said, sit inside the EmpowerTel switch.
"Things like voice dialing just become a regular way of working," he continued. "When I'm done, I don't need to hang up because there is no connection that I'm terminating. I say, 'Hang up and call 555-1212' and a new billing record gets started."
Broadband traffic, he said, would follow a route from the set-top box, computer or telephone to "ultimately come into our switch and get processed as IP packets that provide not only the bridging into the IP networks for transport, but also into the IP protocol, for services reasons."
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