The 10 that Established VoIP (Part 10: SpectraLink)

(This write up concludes the theme, The 10 that Established VoIP)

In absence of the wireless component, VoIP cannot claim to be an all encompassing communications technology. Voice-over-WiFi, which has essentially been serving as the wireless face of VoIP, saw the main contribution coming from handset vendors because that was the new component required to make Voice-over-WiFi possible. If we are to shortlist the most influential companies in VoWiFi, they will have to be the handset vendors, therefore.

And the early handset vendors include SpectraLink (now part of Polycom) and Symbol. Cisco also joined a few years later. It was actually Symbol that announced the VoWiFi handset first back in 1999. In terms of deployment, however, Spectralink was ahead of Symbol. Lowe's Home Improvement, the retailer in the US, was the first SpectraLink customer that demanded a converged voice and data WiFi network. The main hitch was the lack of QoS mechanism within the 802.11 standard at the time.

SpectraLink set out to develop open standards-compatible QoS mechanism, Spectralink Voice Priority (SVP). SVP was a defacto standard in VoWiFi industry while 802.11 standards body was working on the QoS standards. This allowed the VoWiFi to get into the market early. A lot of vendors still use SVP but there is migration toward 802.11e.

If we compare the contribution between Symbol and SpectraLink in the area of VoWiFi, we have to consider that: (1) Symbol leveraged VoWiFi phones to sell WiFi infrastructure solutions; (2) Symbol did not show much commitment to VoWiFi handsets exiting the business around 2004; (3) Symbol did not spend as much effort promoting VoWiFi and educating the enterprises about the technology as SpectraLink did. Spectralink was the primary voice of VoWiFi for several years; (4) Although not a criterion in our selection of companies in this list, but compared to Symbol SpectraLink had more wide scale deployments. It became the market share leader very quickly and it never lost that position.

I think that in absence of SpectraLink there would have been a significant delay in deploying VoWiFi. The fact that SpectraLink was an independent phone vendor, it helped drive standardization between VoWiFi phones and other relevant network components like PBXs and switches.

I also think that in absence of VoWiFi technology, convergence of wireless and wireline networks would have taken a different route. If we did not have VoWiFi, we would see service providers still taking a swing at FMC through the old type IN approach. And Femtocell deployments are indicative of that. What WiFi brings us is a robust broadband, high-capacity, voice-ready technology that enterprises are going to deploy anyway on their own. Enterprises do not depend on service providers to bring in this solution.