Mobile extension - necessity for modern companies
Why is mobile extension so important?
Company CEOs and executive section managers must be mobile. No matter whether they work in administration, sales, technical supervision or production facilities, they have to move flexibly around their working locations. High performance requires all staff to be active in the field all the time. A new trend has appeared in the recent years, especially in connection with fast development of e-mail and Internet services, namely being "on-line". This, of course, counts for data and voice connections, services actually.
Those who do not use these services lose their competition advantage. Let us give an example:
A building company manager is busy solving complaints in the field. In the meantime, a real estate agent is calling the manager's office phone to order e.g. construction of thirty family houses or refurbishment of a factory. The manager is not available (mobile) and thus, without knowing it misses an opportunity to earn a fortune. This example could be an everyday reality. If a client cannot reach a company, he usually tries to find another provider.
It is not only products and services but also swift responses to client's needs that make the winner.
Therefore, mobile approach technologies have entered into business. At first, voice transmissions based on radio links and wireless telephones were used. Later, the DECT standard emerged, offering actual wireless services. Data transmissions turned really mobile a bit later because strictly directional radio relays and optical links were not suitable for this purpose.
The first, yet rather slow case were data transmissions via GSM networks, later accelerated by the GPRS and UMTS technologies. The WiFi (2.4 GHz) technology was a real boom in this area. It has become so popular among IT professionals that every network administrator must have an access point "of his own". In recent months, the Voice over IP technology finally cancelled any difference between the voice and data attributes of communication technologies.
Separation of voice and data helps to get an insight into network services. If you need access to the Internet, e-mail or corporate data, you can drop the DECT system as it provides voice services only and select either GSM or WiFi. There are three basic differences:
As its name indicates, GSM is a global network available practically everywhere
WiFi is a local network, suitable for a company network
GSM access is provided as a service (sometimes also WiFi) by the GSM provider.
If the mobility within a campus is a priority to a company, a proprietary LAN-connected base station and PC modems would be enough. Security risks, transmission capacity and signal availability and intensity, which affect the transmission rate, have to be considered. Band interference is another adverse effect especially in towns and suburbs because almost everybody wants to have a cell of his own and the usable bandwidth is surprisingly low in this technology. Wilful attacks of hackers may cause severe damage too.
In many locations, network availability and signal quality problems can be avoided by the use of public networks working in the required bandwidth. Thanks to low investment costs, a number of regional networks came into being in a short time, initiated by local providers serving households and corporate clients. This service, requiring a few Euro monthly, can extend the personnel's radius from the company limits to tens of square kilometres in the location.
Thanks to their high transmission capacities, local providers can render a full-value Virtual Private Network (VPN), through which one can work with company data relatively safely within the region. This solution is mostly cost-efficient nowadays. Data transmissions via GSM are more convenient technologically. The use of data modems in GSM networks and the rise of third-generation networks working with CDMA and UMTS technologies provide a high quality access to the Internet, which allows the user to keep a VPN and get access to information systems. However, disadvantages and security gaps may be discovered in the future.
The situations in voice services, which are often neglected by IT professionals, are far more interesting. Analogously to WiFi in data transmissions, DECT systems are available in voice transmissions. Their network architectures are similar too - a private branch exchange (PBX), DECT base station, repeaters (where necessary) and telephones.
The quality of the entire solution depends mainly on how the DECT system is interconnected with the PBX. Let us point out Alcatel and Ericsson PBXs with integrated DECT in this respect. With this solution, the telephone provides advanced services like digital key phones or ISDN telephones. However, let us warn you against a DECT system connected to an analog telephone line, which is a bad wireless telephone from this point of view.
The telephone represents both a strong and weak link in the wireless voice network chain. Basically, it is a service terminal that should provide a full-value access and simple operation. The issue of terminals and their ergonomics has arisen recently in connection with the wide use of mobile telephones. Almost everyone has a GSM telephone and is technically advanced enough to manage its control. Thus, a normal user expects the same functions and services from any other telephone, i.e. the DECT telephone too, including display of services and long-life batteries. Such telephones, however, are relatively expensive and the choice is not wide. And why should a user carry another wireless telephone along with his mobile phone?
Some new PBX services available on the market this year have eliminated the disadvantage of a proprietary terminal in the DECT network and its low reach. The principle is unexpectedly simple. A public GSM network is used instead of a new local network. The GSM telephone then becomes the terminal.
There are several advantages in this case:
The GSM telephone is cheap (especially when bundled with a contract)
Almost every one of us is used to carrying a GSM telephone all the time
A GSM network with high reliability and acceptable security is available everywhere
The initial investment costs are low
The operational costs are low too.
The advantage of GSM telephones is quite clear. The GSM telephone market is rather large and offers a number of telephone models. They are simple and smart and resistant against fall and water. The price advantage is based on the principle itself. The company PBX is connected to standard telephones in offices and contains GSM gateways. Whenever a service is activated, the mobile phone in the user's pocket becomes a twin to the user's office telephone. The mobile phone rings together with the office telephone. You can answer the call or transfer it to a colleague or secretary using the dial-in option received by your PBX. The calling party, no matter whether a client or a colleague, notices no delay or unpleasant redirection. Therefore, your mobile phone can be used as a full-value PBX terminal for outgoing calls too. Why is it such advantage?
Calling from a mobile phone we pay a standard rate, e.g. 20 cents. Calling within a VPN we often get a special price, e.g. 10 cents. The PBX equipped with a Least Cost Router (LCR) transmits the next call unmistakably to the private or IP network where calls are free. Thus, the cost of this mobility service is one crown per minute, yet the added value is many times higher for the company and user. It is because flexibility and availability of a person surpass qualities of any other types of networks and terminals. This is highly beneficial for any company that provides maintenance and repair services at the client's.
Most specialists and managers work in the field all the time and have to be reachable. Although a mobile phone allows them to answer or make a call, they cannot transfer a call to another subscriber, e.g. the economic department or ordering service.
A combination of the WiFi and VoIP technologies is a wild card in this case. Together with a low price, relatively cheap telephones represent a weighty argument for building up a network of one's own and make calls via public networks. It is also attractive that there is no need to buy a special telephone, that PC phones are worth of few Euro nowadays and a number of employees use their laptops in the field too. Unavailability of incoming calls still remains a disadvantage.
Let us add here that a great future is awaiting the VoIP-WiFi alternative. It is thanks to regional providers who start offering telephony as a service, often working together with leading network providers such as VIPhone or Fayn. They can offer and guarantee such bandwidths that make telephony troublefree.
At present, voice traffic in similar networks represents a negligible portion of the data flow - about 5 percent. However, it is expected that the proportion of transported voice will rise in the future not only in corporate clients. Cheap calls are attractive for households too, the price not being the main argument in many cases. The IP telephony becomes trendy especially among young people, whom, besides chatting, it gives another opportunity to spend even more pleasant hours at their PCs.
The VoIP-WiFi co-existence is good for company networks too. Any company residing in a small town and keeping a production hall, a warehouse and a store may save hundreds of Euros a year and get a secure data transmission with a private voice network. With WiFi, a single VoIP telephone can be connected to the PBX on one working place or interconnect two PBXs.