A new generation of telephones: let your telephone work for you: from simple voice mail to the latest rage, voice-over-IP.

"One ringy dingy. Two ringy dingy. Hello, is this the party to whom I am speaking?" Telephones have come a long way since comedian Lilly Tomlin made the concept of two-way communication indelible in our minds.

The telephone has been ringing for a long time. So far, there is seemingly no competition for this technology; not even the Internet bites into the time people spend on the phone. The "ringy dingy" may be replaced by a more soothing, electronic jingle, but the timeless device still provides the customer with an instantaneous one-on-one, personal connection. Whether receiving a call from a client, or placing a sales call, no business can afford to be without a modern-day telephone system.

CALLS UP

The Federal Communications Commission reports that end-user customers obtained local telephone service (nationally) by means of some 167 million incumbent, local exchange-carrier (ILEC) switched access lines; 22 million competitive, local exchange-carrier (CLEC) switched access lines; and 129 million mobile, wireless telephone-service subscriptions. According to the report, Alaska had 484,065 ILECs. For competitive reasons, the number of CLEC connections in Alaska is not reported. In order for a carrier to be considered the "provider" of local telephone line over its facilities, it should own the "last mile" of wire, cable or optical fiber that connects to the end-user premises, or radio spectrum for the fixed wireless facility. According to the report, small business and residential usage accounts for slightly more than one-half of phone connections on CLECs. That compares to over three-quarters for ILEC lines. Presumably the remainder of users constitutes big business and government. So, nearly 50 percent o f phone usage is used by big business. Add the small businesses into the equation and business in general accounts for the majority of telephone usage in this country.

BIZ USE

It's generally understood that companies need telephone equipment and telephone systems. The key issue at hand is that the company maximizes its efficiency with the telephone--there are many ways to ensure that.

One major workplace time saver is voicemail. Ever miss a call, or not have your call promptly returned? Both issues are among the irksome problems a company can minimize or eliminate with today's voicemail technology. Voicemail is not new to the business telephone system, but some of its new features are. Primarily, the service frees up the receptionist and verifies that messages are not lost. Wire-Comm's general manager explained many of the uses of voicemail for this article. In addition to providing telephone-answering backup during peak business hours, it has other attributes. The system accepts after-hours calls, allowing the company to promote information about the business on the telephone system and also for callers to utilize the directory features of the voicemail, also to leave an after-hours message in an employee's mailbox, Wire-Comm General Manager Corey Kemp says.

Wire Communications Inc., or Wire-Comm (www.wirecommunications.com), is a subsidiary of Ahtna Native Corp., with offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks. Its customer base exceeds 1,200 clients. The company provides interconnect services, data cabling, fiber optics installation and electrical construction and service.

Kemp says voicemail can act as an emergency notifier. This feature allows a caller to leave a message in a mailbox, then the voicemail system will notify an on-call service representative. The process is ideal for service companies, such as Wire-Comm.

A company can have all its e-mail messages, voicemail messages and fax messages accessible to individual e-mail boxes. Also known as unified messaging, this feature is ideal for the small, entrepreneurial business owner, or the traveling executive.

Tack on Auto Attendant to the list of options, allowing a company to route calls received during peak times to the voicemail, ensuring the caller never gets a "no-answer."

ENOUGH

Many companies already have numerous "business simple" lines connected to analog devices, such as faxes and modems. The company must order a business-simple line for each device, even if that device is used once or twice a day for a few minutes, says Kemp.

Kemp recommends that any business utilizing over six incoming lines install a T1 line. T1 (Tee-One), as defined by McGraw Hill's technology dictionary, is a standard 1.544-Mbps carrier system used to transport 24 telephone lines, or various broadband services, from one point to another. The T1 is a four-wire circuit: two wires for transmit and two wires for receive.

Cost is the primary advantage to T1, over maintaining several dozen or more analog lines. While the cost varies among providers, a T1 in Anchorage runs about $550 per month.

The integrated 24 lines of a T1 allow the individual company additional options, like Direct Inward Dial. With DID, all employees can have a direct number-providing an alternative to the receptionist. Analog devices can be attached to the system, tie up one line when they are in use, and operate on a first-come first-serve basis. That is, with a T1, there is almost no limit on the amount of phone numbers a company can secure from a telecomm provider--allowing that each employee, each fax and modem, all receive their own dedicated phone number. And, with a T1, a PBX is no longer a requisite.

Today's phone system can include options like Call Accounting to track actual usage with a variety of management-software tools. For the company that receives a lot of calls--hundreds or thousands of calls per day--there is the Automatic Call Distribution server. It's a function that allows calls to be queued and properly distributed to agents, tracking and reporting the activity.

If a company's physical plant is spread out and employees are never or seldom in one location for any period of time (for example, a hospital or car dealership), technology today allows on-site cell sites, or a private, local cell service.

We tend to overlook many of the features that have become standard in most all business applications. Don't forget: music or messaging on hold, call pickup groups, E911, executive override, delay ringing, hunting, distinctive ringing, and so on. Check with the service provider for the multitude of options available today. Wire-Comm specializes in NEC equipment (www.cng.nec.com). An NEC PBX has more than 450 features available to help a company achieve its goals, says Kemp.

WHIZ BANG

Perhaps the industry's only primary new technology on the block is the IP (Internet protocol) voice switch, which brings us to the topic of Voice-over-IP, or VoIP: known as a method of connecting voice conversations over controlled IP environments, such as private data networks, according to the McGraw Hill technology dictionary. It's the transfer of voice over the Internet or intranet. VoIP is not without plusses and minuses, and its advocates and critics.

Quality of service has driven the telephone industry almost from its invention. There are those who would say that bandwidth battles and the quest for higher speed technologies--coupled with servicing multimedia and convenience--may be compromising the voice end of the service. Cellular telephones may be a good example of where voice quality is sacrificed for convenience and mobility. IP converts all information, whether voice or data, to those tiny bits and bytes of ones and zeros and sends it all down one pipe. When an e-mail is retrieved, it's unknown if there were retries or pauses in the transmission because of congestion. However, if the packet of a voice call is lost or delayed, it becomes very apparent.

By way of clarification, digitizing voice has been around for a very long time. T1 lines are digital lines. So why is VoIP such a rage? One argument might be the possible toll bypass. Companies that have multiple locations and are interconnected with a Wide Area Network can lower long-distance bills through this technology. A good example here: Wire-Comm connected the Kanakanak Hospital in Dillingham to 27 village medical clinics by means of VoIP through satellite T1 supplied by GCI.

Building new or rewiring can cut the cost of cabling and there is the potential of wireless connectivity with VoIP, as well. If considering this alternative telephone technology, proceed with caution. Quality of service from VoIP does not come without a price.

There are primarily two different ways to approach the switch to VoIP. There is the option of IP-only, from vendors like Cisco and 3Com; or a hybrid solution like the Wire-Comm specialty NEC; or Avaya, promoted by MTA, and Nortel and Siemens. These can perform true peer-to-peer IP switched telephony and easily interface with standard analog service with IP cards to "IP-enable" them.

The company that is seriously considering the voice-over-IP plunge no doubt has a lot of questions. Will it save money? Can IP and telecom staffs work together or be merged?

For starters, IP telephony works best on LANs running switched 1O/100/M bit/sec Ethernet. If still using hubs, an upgrade may be in order.

IP voice quality can be as good or better than standard voice quality. But VoIP on a system that is not quality-of-service capable may have to tolerate the occasional snaps and pops on the line. If revenue-generating calls are involved, companies typically have a higher standard.

The case for saving money is difficult to answer. Most companies can cut administrative costs, remove some phone trunks for a single network for all traffic, and avoid expensive toll fees. But it's important to factor in the cost of the new equipment; bigger, more expensive links to service providers; and higher priced service-level agreements. While most traditional PBXs have backup power built in, a voice-over-LAN introduces more devices into the voice-network equation. Commodity IP phones from third-party venders are not always compatible with every IP installation. VoIP is also as susceptible to security attacks and vulnerable to viruses as is any LAN, so regular updates and patches are required.

Typically of primary concern: the access to 911. If the end user moves the phone to another office, the 911 system and emergency personnel must be able to still find the individual. Depending on whose gear you're using, updating the location database might require manual entries, or limit the number of times a phone can be moved per day.

Some of the whiz bang attributes that can be added to a new IP-telephony system include unified messaging: a crafted product that allows the end user to read e-mail and listen to voicemail from a single box. Telecommuters using VPN connections and IP phones, or PC-based "softphone," can extend their office extension to the home office or on the road. High-end phones with LCD displays even let the user surf the Internet.

MTA-Telco (www.mta-telco.com) in Palmer is currently rolling out Avaya's new Enterprise Class IP Solutions or ECLIPS. The concept: "Don't reinvent. Rethink." According to the company, with Avaya Multi Vantage, businesses can rethink their existing communication networks, and determine where to introduce IP telephony to maximize their return.

All in all, many businesses are switching to IP LAN telephony systems. According to Network World, a weekly industry publication, more than 40 percent of those U.S. companies having more than 500 employees have implemented the technology. The magazine reports that 101 companies, surveyed to determine why they are not buying into VoIP on LANs, responded as follows: 41.3 percent indicated no real need to do so, 27.6 percent said the technology is too expensive, 9.7 percent said they are simply waiting for the technology to mature, 7.3 percent said they don't see the advantages, 7.1 percent indicated other reasons, 4.9 percent indicated management/reliability questions, and 2.1 percent were simply unsure.

Mature or not, that "ringy-dingy" is no longer simply the clunky, black telephone. As for the party to whom you are speaking ... well let's hope, in this age of technology, it is still a real person.