4.1 Introduction

The convergence of voice and data networks [1] has brought new opportunities and threats to traditional suppliers of telephone switching systems in the customer premises equipment (CPE) market. Defined as describing a total end-to-end solution including quality of service from the user's perspective, IP telephony gives the opportunity for advanced communications applications. As IP telephony is an end-to-end application, it potentially opens up the opportunity for not just voice but also economically providing multimedia communications such as data collaboration or even videoconferencing. Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, and IP-based telephony systems in particular, therefore offer the promise of a fully converged communications network supporting a rich set of multimedia applications beyond simple telephony and so potentially yielding real business benefits.

This chapter addresses IP telephony solutions focusing specifically on the business customer premises market including CPE products and associated business applications.

4.2 Market Approaches to VoIP CPE Solutions

The technology media have been heralding VoIP, IP-PBX, and IP telephony for several years now and the hype has produced a ground swell of interest and anticipation among both customers and the communications industry at large. For some time there has been a viable market for VoIP for what might be labelled the transport element of the technology. Data equipment manufacturers have largely generated this market by developing the necessary hardware to replace traditional voice TDM trunk circuits. Typically these products have between targeted for use between individual locations for allowing voice and...