If voice-over-Internet protocol telephony hopes to take a leading role in communications industry, it must offer users a lot more than just cheap long-distance rates, some people argue. Rapid improvements in call quality are not enough to ensure widespread acceptance. This school of thought believes voice over IP will be a legitimate contender in the marketplace only when it provides the same types of enhanced features currently available on landline and wireless networks.

One carrier living that philosophy is CentreCom Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif. In July, the company rolled out its CentreOne offering, a voice-over-IP version of the wireless industry's "one-number, follow-me" service. According to the CentreCom announcement, CentreOne service "provides true real-time voice, messaging and fax communications via any communications medium connected to the Internet and switched networks, which will dramatically reduce the cost of traditional international calls by up to 4000%."

In other words, for a monthly fee of $10 plus usage, CentreOne allows subscribers to send and receive calls and faxes, as well as access voice messages, on their choice of three terminals: any computer connected to the Internet, a landline phone or a wireless phone.

The system assigns each subscriber a CentreOne number, and the subscriber then programs up to three numbers into the CentreOne system. These numbers may include any three of the subscriber's home phone, wireless phone, office phone, computer, fax machine and pager numbers. The subscriber can change these three numbers at any time and from any phone.

When a caller dials the subscriber's CentreOne number, the system attempts to locate that subscriber at the three programmed numbers. Once the subscriber answers, the CentreOne system prompts the caller to state his or her name and then relays the information to the subscriber. The subscriber then can accept the call on any one of the devices associated with the three programmed numbers.

The subscriber also can request the CentreOne system to take the call. In that case, the system informs the caller that the subscriber is not available and offers a connection to the subscriber's voice mail or assistant. If the subscriber programs the CentreOne system with a pager number, the system activates the pager when a caller is on the line, has left a voice mail or has sent a fax.

Non-subscribers can reach CentreOne customers via the Web and a phone. At CentreCom's Web site, non-subscribers can download Microsoft's NetMeeting 3.0 at no cost and follow the instructions for dialing a subscriber's assigned CentreOne number.

Targeting the world

CentreCom has characterized its service as a true integration of voice, voice messaging and fax messaging over IP and switched networks. CentreCom President Don Feuer says such enhanced capabilities are crucial to the ultimate success of voice-over-IP services, especially because IP telephony "is not a perfect science yet." CentreOne, he says, overcomes some quality issues by allowing people to select a call-transport system: wireless, public network or the Internet.

"We have the ability to provide real cost savings and give people a choice," he says. "If the quality of this call is good enough, I'll take it over the Internet. If it's not good enough, I can take it over a landline or wireless network."

Feuer points out that CentreOne also provides the convenience of unified messaging. For example, it can convert voice mails to e-mails, rounding out what Feuer calls "a complete convergence of communications."

Although follow-me services are designed at least initially for road warriors, CentreCom is taking a much broader approach. "Our target market is the world," Feuer says. "When you mix in the savings involved with [voice over IP], when you mix in unified messaging and then you mix in the functionality of [voice over IP] with follow-me service, you are talking about something that is for everyone."

CentreCom is targeting large corporations, particularly those that have employees all over the world. CentreOne service provides those employees with one common point of communication, regardless of location. It ties them together, Feuer says, and acts as a messaging service for a defined user group.

In addition, given the multicultural aspects of many nations today, CentreOne is designed to enable individuals living in one country to communicate cost-effectively with friends and relatives living in others.

Although he declines to reveal the exact size of the CentreOne customer base, Feuer says "thousands" have signed up, including subscribers in the Middle East, Europe, Australia and North America. Originally, the company expected to have as many as 3 million subscribers worldwide by 2001, but in light of the response so far, Feuer says CentreCom now expects "to sign up a lot more than that."

Enhanced networking

To provide service, CentreCom uses call management switches, developed jointly with Cisco Systems. These are interconnected with each other and with Cisco's AS5300 voice-over-IP switches in CentreCom's network. The resulting CentreOne platform operates with IP telephony gateways, supplied by TEK DigiTel Corp. in Germantown, Md., and installed on the customer's premises.

The iGate IP voice gateway/router combines IP telephony, Internet access and IP routing. The router is part of TEK DigiTel's VoiceServer product line, which focuses on integrating fax and IP voice technologies with conventional PBX systems and data-routing devices.

TEK DigiTel targets the small office/home office (SOHO) segment, as well as small and medium-sized businesses, by partnering with equipment vendors selling direct to service providers to reach the market.

James Sturgess, the company's director of marketing, says that SOHO, small and medium-sized businesses, fueled by the Internet, comprise one of the fastest-growing markets for products such as the TEK DigiTel device.

The Internet enables operations of this size to grow rapidly via their individual Web sites. However, that rapid growth means they "suddenly have to deal with customers around the world, right from Day 1 - and the costs associated with those customers," Sturgess says. Clearly, IP telephony is attractive to such companies as a tool for significantly reducing their phone bills, he adds.

Until recently, service providers operating in that part of the market didn't have many choices when it came to customer premises equipment that provided voice-over-IP and PBX-like capabilities. "In the large-enterprise space and in the carrier central office [IP voice] market, there's a huge number of [equipment vendors] contending for that market," he says.

"Service providers right now are stocking up in terms of central office equipment. But very quickly, they [must ask themselves], `What do we put on the customer side?' We believe there is a huge potential to form relationships with them when they start looking for a low-cost CPE device."

CentreCom executives agreed. After TEK DigiTel contacted Feuer and he saw the iGate product in operation, "it just seemed right to start to work together," he says.

A bundled arrangement

Indeed, the two companies are working very closely together. TEK DigiTel bundles CentreOne service with the iGate devices it sells to ISPs and, taking another page from the wireless industry book, CentreCom bundles the iGate CPE with its CenterOne service. Just as cellular customers get a "free" handset when they sign a long-term service contract, CenterOne customers get an iGate voice gateway/router - sporting the CentreCom brand - if they commit to a service agreement with CentreCom.

Those interested in subscribing to CentreOne service can do so directly through the CentreCom Web site. The company then ships them the voice gateway/router, which measures only 1 by 8 by 5 inches. Many CentreOne customers can install it themselves by plugging the relevant lines into the box. For those with less technical prowess, CentreCom will dispatch a technician to do the job.

Although there are several ways to hook it up, Feuer says, "The best of all worlds is that the subscriber have a DSL or cable modem line. That's who we're pushing for in the United States. In other parts of the world, ISDN is very prevalent."

The combination of a cable modem or DSL line with CentreOne service effectively creates multiple "IP phone lines" into a business or residence, he says, and in some cases might even eliminate the need for traditional phone service.