..::voIPKenya voIPHotel

voIPHotel

The Opportunity
For today's traveler, telephone service is as much as part of a hotel stay as a bed and a hot shower. But
hotels have traditionally had to charge high rates for phone service because of their own costs (which
include high-capacity trunk lines that are often under-utilized) and their need to ensure that those services
are sufficiently profitable. These high rates have not been popular with guests.

However, because hotel chains have so many locations - and because those locations are typically
connected via an IP network that supports the chain's data services - an important new communications
opportunity has emerged. By utilizing that IP network to carry the long-distance portion of guests' voice
calls, hotels can significantly lower their telecom costs. In fact, those savings can be substantial enough to
allow hotels to pass a significant percentage of those savings on to their guests and still increase their per-
call profits.

This opportunity is particularly lucrative for hotels with multi-national locations and sufficient spare capacity
on their IP networks. International call can be extremely expensive, especially in countries that still have
regulated monopolies in place. The use of a hotel's corporate IP network allows the expensive monopolies to
be bypassed.

This voice-enabling of the IP network can also be used to eliminate long-distance charges for calls between
hotels themselves, as well for forwarding calls from a hotel chain's call center to its individual locations and
vice versa.

The Technical Challenge
Hotels are in the hospitality business, not the telecom business. So any voice-over-IP (VoIP) solution that
they deploy must be easy-to-implement, easy-to-manage and nondisruptive to existing voice and data
network infrastructure. Just as importantly, the use of VoIP technology cannot in any way jeopardize the
quality of guests' calls. Any deterioration in call quality would negate the potential business benefits of a
VoIP implementation.

Finally, the VoIP system must possess sufficient intelligence to automatically manage call "hop-offs." That is,
the system must be able to identify the hotel location closest to the ultimate destination of the call, and
route the call over the hotel's IP network to that location. Then, the system must be able to switch that call
from the hotel's IP network at that location to the local PSTN for final termination. The system must be
capable of being configured for this type of hop-off switching without requiring the hotel chain's technical
staff to undertake unduly complex administration.

Intelligent "hop-off" routing
The Tenor's intelligent, easy-to-administer "hop-off" functionality allows guests' long distance calls to be first
carried to the appropriate local hotel via the corporate IP network. This functionality is easy to configure
and update as new hotels are brought on-line. It is also entirely transparent to guests and hotel employees.
They do not have change their dialing habits and will not notice any difference in voice quality. This
significantly reduces long-distance charges to the hotel, making phone services substantially more profitable
even if charges to the guest are reduced.

Reduced trunking requirements
By using existing IP WAN capacity and/or the Internet itself to handle voice traffic, hotels can significantly
reduce their trunking requirements - thereby reducing voice infrastructure costs. In particular, they no
longer have to "over-provision" trunks to handle intermittent peak traffic levels, since such traffic can be
easily and automatically routed over IP links.

Guaranteed call quality
Tenor switches vigilantly protect voice-call quality by continually monitoring conditions on the IP network
and taking immediate action if those conditions threaten voice traffic in any way. If conditions such as delay
or "jitter" become evident, Quintum's SelectNetTM technology automatically and transparently switches any
active calls from the IP network to the public switched network (PSTN). This can be done in mid-call
without interrupting either party. Once conditions on the IP network are restored, VoIP can then be re-
activated. The savings associated with VoIP can thus be momentarily sacrificed to ensure that guests
always experience acceptable call quality.

Non-disruptive implementation
The Tenor's unique MultiPath architecture allows it to be easily installed in line with existing PBX trunks to the
PSTN. This requires little or no reconfiguration of the PBX and eliminates any need to add costly PBX tie
trunks. The Tenor's integrated call routing functions identify which calls are to be routed over the IP
network. Calls that do not qualify for IP routing simply pass through to the PSTN. The Tenor is thus
transparent to the PBX and totally non-disruptive to existing voice and data infrastructure.

Conclusion
By virtue of their numerous locations, hotels have a tremendous opportunity to bypass national and
international long distance carriers by using their existing IP networks to carry voice traffic. Barriers to such
a bypass strategy include risk of call-quality degradation, concerns about management complexity, and the
need to minimize disruption of existing infrastructure. Quintum Technologies' Tenor VoIP MultiPath Switch
overcomes the barriers of risky voice quality, management complexity and potential disruption to the
existing infrastructure, enabling hotel chains to reduce their telecom costs while maximizing the profitability
of their phone services.