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3Com users say voice and data convergence will have to wait

By Lisa Burroughes

Published: Wednesday 14 April 1999

Network managers do not believe data networks are ready to carry voice traffic on their corporate LANs (local area networks).

At the 3Com pan-European user group conference in Monte Carlo this week more than 60 per cent of delegates said they are not deploying converged voice and data networks today.

Many delegates said data networks still do not offer the same level of reliability as traditional voice connections. Bo Nilso, network engineer at Saab Combitech, said: "There's nothing wrong with the idea of convergence but you would need to have a very high reliability if you are going to put voice on it as well. At the moment 99.99 per cent reliability is about four years away."

A number of other prohibitive factors were also highlighted. Miguel Marroig Vives, IT and new technologies director at Riu Hotels, pointed out there are issues concerning legislation - many countries simply won't allow voice to be carried over data networks. "We will not have a converged network for at least four years - legislation is a big problem for companies, like ours, which work on a global basis," he said.

For Peter Mills, network manager at Manchester University, it is a question of capacity. "I would ideally like to throw out my 12 year old PABX boxes and replace them with IP boxes, but at the moment they only support 100 users and I need capability for 6,000," he said.

Sheena Wakefield, network support manager at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "We are planning a converged network but telephony is further down the line. We will converge voice and data on the network eventually - probably. But at the moment it isn't a key priority."

Despite the barriers, a survey of 400 users at the conference found nearly 90 per cent plan to converge networks in the next five years, with many agreeing convergence would enable them to offer new and different services.