Mark Main
Dutch cable operators start VoIP peering trials
The five largest Dutch cable operators have announced a trial of VoIP peering in the Netherlands that is expected to lead to fuller connectivity. UPC Netherlands, Casema, Multikabel, Essent and CaiW have announced the award of a contract to Xconnect partnered with Kayote Networks for a VoIP peering platform and interconnectivity solutions for routing and peering. The underlying technology is Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Comment: While many VoIP services typically offer low-cost phone calls to PSTN and mobile networks, calls are generally only totally free between customers of the same service provider - in the case of these Dutch operators, that means each set of cable customers. VoIP peering changes that by providing zero-charge interconnect between the operators, meaning that the scope of free telephone calling becomes extended to all the participants. So far, we have seen very little VoIP peering between major players; it is currently in the domain of the smaller service providers. This project brings VoIP peering to five cable players with a total customer base of more than 7m homes, with approximately 450,000 phone lines (not all provided using VoIP, however.)Peering brings a number of issues - not least of which is numbering. With some peering arrangements between service providers, callers sometimes need to prefix a call with a routing code to address users on another network. The system announced for the Dutch cable operators includes a private ENUM solution that should avoid such complexities. The platform will also incorporate safeguards against SPAM over Internet telephony (SPIT) and other security problems such as caller-ID spoofing. The industry will of course be watching to see just how effective these controls behave in practice.This is therefore a significant step forward - one which suits these cable operators very well. In many cable markets, there is typically very little service footprint overlap between the operators, so they have little to fear from one another as competitors and everything to gain from taking on the incumbent as an interconnected entity. The model may therefore work well in other markets. It also provides an interesting degree of collaboration prior to a possible fuller business consolidation - a trend in the cable market that we see continuing, particularly in Europe. Indeed, interconnect makes consolidation simpler in some respects so it could accelerate the process of cable consolidation. However, VoIP peering will be technically complex to implement, and we do not expect to see any launches in the short term.The interconnection announced yesterday does not stop with VoIP. The solution being trialled is an SIP-exchange service, which paves the way for future SIP-based multimedia services. Example SIP services include messaging, chat, video telephony, conferencing, shared workspaces - all augmented in future by presence capability (i.e. network knowledge of the users' 'reachability' or 'availability'). Cable in the Netherlands is positioning itself for a much broader range of services than just voice telephony. Interconnected VoIP is merely a first step in this context - but a crucial one.
