Furthermore, the parties intend to extend their strategic co-operation on the design, development and deployment of IP-centric services, built on end-to-end IP infrastructure including, core networks, optical systems and call agents. VoIP is the practice of sending digital voice signals utilizing an IP network infrastructure rather than the traditional telephone network.
Under the terms of the letter of intent, Cisco and UPC have the intention to use the existing UPC cable network for the offering of Vo-IP services. The project, which has a duration of three years, will cover a minimum of five cities and will allow up to 500,000 residential customers to use the new service. The integration of the VoIP solution will be undertaken by Cisco’s ‘ecosystem partner’ KPMG Consulting (Europe), which has significant expertise in this leading technology. UPC anticipates the first commercial test in the third quarter of this year, starting in the city of Rotterdam. This will put the Netherlands in the forefront of the countries that deploy this new technology.
The roll-out of this state-of-the-art technology will allow UPC to make significant cost savings compared to the traditional way of offering telephone services over cable networks, allowing operators to provide high-quality services at very competitive prices. The benefit of VoIP over traditional communications structures is that subscribers can access a wide range of voice services, in addition to the delivery of data services, such as High-speed Internet access, using a single, unified communications structure, across one customer provisioning system.
IP is recognised as the standard architecture for networks in the future and is widely being used in a large number of corporate and residential environments. Integral to the VoIP deployment strategy, will be Cisco’s work with the other Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) partners of UPC to ensure open-standards and interoperability between their equipment and the VoIP infrastructure. Sudhir Ispahani, UPC’s Head of Technology, who has spearheaded the VoIP initiative in the company is driving this strategy within UPC.
William Nuti, Senior Vice President of Cisco Systems, Europe, Middle East and Africa added: Voice over IP is a ‘future-proof’ technology, which has matured for implementation on a pan-European scale. It will offer operators a new business model through which they can deploy and operate a single, multiservice broadband network. We have worked with UPC for around five years, and we are delighted to continue helping them deliver on their commitment to providing their customers with the foremost broadband network and the very latest in voice, video and data services.
