IBM and Nuera Agree to Integrate Voice/Data Network Traffic
In an effort to provide its customers with some measure of relief from toll charges that accumulate from the transmission of data, voice and fax traffic over Frame Relay or IP networks, IBM has announced an agreement with Nuera Communications expected to save companies up to 85 percent in toll charges annually.
The key to accomplishing this cost savings is to integrate voice and data offerings. IBM will market, service and support the Nuera Access Plus F200 Voice Frame Relay Access Device. When used in conjunction with IBM's access products, the F200 provides an integrated voice/data network that allows customers to bypass costly tariff charges from phone companies, according to published reports.
This solution is also expected to enable medium to large-sized customers to better use their existing network connections to remote sites and branch offices by adding support for voice and video traffic. The solution is designed to feature superior sound quality, as well as IBM's policy management approach to ensure Quality of Service (QoS) across the network.
"We understand our customers' need to reduce the cost and complexity of voice and data traffic while maintaining the superior network quality required to run their e-businesses," says Jane Munn, IBM program director workgroup networks for the Networking Hardware Division. "With the award-winning F200, our voice/data offering provides our customers excellent performance and quality of service at a price that allows them to recoup their investment in as little as five months."
The F200 provides central sites the capacity required to handle voice traffic from a large number of branch and remote offices. It also supports high capacity connections to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This new solution complements voice/data support in IBM's 2210 Nways Multiprotocol Router, 2212 Access Utility and 2216 Nways Multi-access Connector.
--L. Greenemeier