Telecommunications

Telecommunications

I work for a major construction company who employees over 80,000 employees worldwide. Finding a way to communicate with everyone that is spread out across the world while not spending a fortune with long distance charges was an issue that my company needed to find a solution for. In May of 2005, they decided to switch everyone from a traditional PBX system to a VoIP system. You may ask what a VoIP system is, Voice over Internet Protocol is the practice of using an Internet connection to pass voice data using IP instead of using the standard PSTN. A traditional PBX system may look like this:

While the VoIP system currently used at Bechtel looks like this:

When making the decision as to whether to stay with a traditional PBX system or to switch to a VoIP system, Bechtel analyzed the current system with the possibility of replacing it with VoIP. Some things that were taken into consideration included that it required a separate wired network and cables ran, Bechtel had to deal with outside vendors to install the new system and to support it, and the amount of time it takes to role out in larger environments. While we still have to run cables for a VoIP service, we only have to run one cable rather then two cables, due to the network cable is ran to the phone which is then connected to the computer. With VoIP service support is provided in house using our trained network and telecommunications teams. Bechtel also has found out that the role out process is much faster then traditional PBX's due to not waiting on independent phone contractors.

The VoIP system has many advantages as wall as disadvantages as with any telecommunications service. One advantage of the VoIP system is that users can take their phone to any office location and still make and receive phone calls as if they were still sitting at their desk. The only condition is that there has to be a connection to the Internet. VoIP also allows us to save money when communicating with our corporate office. We have a phone at our location which has a Fredrick Maryland phone number, our corporate office which is located in Fredrick Maryland calls this phone number and enters the extension of the person that they want and the phone call is a local call since it is being routed through