MSAN+Voice starting to get traction, says ECI
This announcement from ECI caught my eye yesterday. It has been a long time since I last heard about MSAN+Voice. ECI has integrated VoIP access gateway module into its MSAN product. There are several MSANs with VoIP access gateway modules out in the market. ECI claims to be unique in that the vendor has integrated the module onto the network interface card, freeing up an additional slot for a subscriber line card that would otherwise be occupied.
Anyway, MSANs have a clear business case for operators that are unnecessarily running two parallel voice networks: narrowband voice and broadband voice. A VoIP enabled MSAN bridges the two disparate networks. A customer can either migrate to a VoIP line or choose to keep its PSTN line. Both will be served by the same network. Obviously there needs to be interoperability between MSAN and the softswitch being used by the operator. ECI claims to have proven the interoperability in the trials and deployments it is involved in.
Nevertheless operators need to carefully consider the business case for such a significant change in the network. According to ECI several operators in EMEA and APAC will be making final decisions in the near future. The vendor expects significant rollouts of MSANs with voice toward Q4 2008, continuing into 2009 and beyond.
The interest in MSANs, which starting ticking some 4 years ago, has also had a major impact on the migration of Class 5 infrastructure. The GR303/V5.2 market – which involves conversion of TDM voice to IP voice at the edge of the network - effectively collapsed as a result of MSAN availability. However that is all that happened. MSAN itself did not see major deployments. It remains a theoretically correct concept. And that is about it so far.
Incumbents have not felt the pressure to bridge the TDM and VoIP networks. Their VoIP offerings are still of secondary nature and defensive in terms of strategy. It seems that they can afford to let the VoIP network grow in parallel. In the long run, however, maintaining two parallel networks also means double the manpower.
