Keeping Up with Telecom Technology
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- It’s a common frustration all telecommunications customers share. A network outage. Telephone lines go down. Internet service goes dark.
The next step is to call your service provider, and in today’s environment of dealing with mega-telecom companies that span the globe, sometimes it’s difficult to get answers from a technician who knows or understands your business or problem, let alone one speaking to you from within 1,000 miles.
“Just because they’re large doesn’t mean they’re better in terms of cost and service,” says Millie Baldwin, president of Delta Telecom Inc. in Poland. Baldwin is one of a handful of local telecommunications companies that emphasize the importance of a local presence capable of responding quickly to customer’s requests or concerns.
“We’re the service provider,” Baldwin says. “Our customers get a bill from us, not another company. I’ll dispatch technicians to sites at no cost, and it’s our employees here that are answering the phones and speaking to customers. That’s just not common anymore.”
Telecommunications has become a $4.7 trillion global industry that encompasses not just telephone service, but all aspects of communications that connect everything from a small business or home entertainment system to world financial markets.
And the industry is rapidly changing as new products are introduced each year, as tablets and mobile phones with wireless connectivity are more ubiquitous than ever.
According to an industry report published by China-based Huawei Technologies Co., one of the world’s largest suppliers of telecommunications products, the number of mobile broadband subscribers could reach three billion in the next five years. This, along with cloud computing and expanded Internet service, stands to transform traditional media and telecommunications.
Delta Telecom’s Baldwin says that her small company has experienced steady growth since it was launched in 2006. Critical to growth, she adds, is supplying customers with enough bandwidth that will allow their customers’ data communications to run smoother, faster and more efficiently.
“In June, we’re going to be building out a new network” that will offer high-speed connectivity to clients in the Youngstown area, she reports. “This will be my own network.”
Reliable connectivity is also important in an increasingly more competitive and demanding business world. Employers, managers and employees now feel the need to be wired into the office from remote locations, a need that provides new opportunities for the telecom industry, relates Deane Wurst, president of Tele-Solutions Inc., Boardman.
“In the future, everything will be applications-based,” Wurst says. “A lot of what I do anymore isn’t telephones. We’re more of a data house than ever before.”
The industry is moving toward a “bring your own device,” or BYOD, model where a company’s software application can be adapted to nearly any communications device an employee owns. “If I want to communicate with you on anything – iPad, Android or cell phone – I need to be able to do that regardless of the device you own.”
Today, most companies are installing what are called IP, or Internet Protocol, telephony phone systems in their offices. The platform is different than the earlier VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, systems that many used five and six years ago.
“It used to be that our installations were 75% to 80% VoIP,” Wurst reports. “Now, I’d say 75% to 85% are all IP installations.”
An IP phone system uses that technology to communicate along a private network at a single location or across a private network to reach remote locations. VoIP, on the other hand, refers to use of the public Internet to carry voice traffic.
A business can run IP telephony across its data system to connect more than one user at remote locations, for example, employees working from home, Wurst says. “IP is a much more valuable tool, and costs are coming down a lot.”
New technology also presents more opportunities for local telecom companies such as Tele-Solutions, Wurst says. “There’s now the opportunity for selling new software. You’re going to see a day when most of the devices are all software-driven,” he says.
The market has enjoyed enormous growth over the last decade because costs have come down dramatically, allowing more users to access this technology than ever before, adds Jim Dietl, president of sales at ALC Security and Communications, Warren.
“The telephone industry has always been good to us,” Dietl relates. “Costs have come down and installation is now a lot easier.”
As such, smaller companies in the Mahoning Valley are electing to install this high-tech equipment to allow seamless connectivity with their employees, Dietl says. “It’s affordable now for small and medium-sized businesses,” he reports.
Under new IP platforms, an employee’s office and mobile phones can be integrated into the system. Thus, when a business call reaches a desk phone, it can also ring the cell, Dietl notes. “If I’m mobile for that day, I can get the phone. I can conference, record. It’s all intertwined.”
ALC has diversified its services to include security systems that are also integrated into a company’s data network, Dietl relates. “We’re able to put a lot of security cameras right on the computer network and we’ll program it to make it work for you,” he says. “There’s really not much we can’t do anymore.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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