(c) Denphone K.K.
[Nikkei Communications Magazine] - December 15, 2005
"Black Ships" have come to force to open the Japanese VOIP market
The Open standard IP-PBX "Asterisk" software has now arrived in the market
In the United States, the number of users of the opensource IP-PBX "Asterisk" has been growing. According to Tetsuo Nakano, (Manager of NEC Infrontia, IP System Products Development Div.), "It seems to have already reached nearly 200,000 users", which is starting to threaten other IP-PBX companies.
Asterisk is an open source IP-PBX, developed by Mark Spencer, the President of Digium in the USA. It is a cooperative project under development by people located around the world. The development model is very similar to that of Linux..
Rich function set
Compared with other IP PBX systems, Asterisk has additional PBX functions, such as call transfer and call forward. It can be also be connected with the PSTN as compatible technology is now available.
Asterisk comes with additional rich functionality, for example, IVR, voice mail, telephone conference, all of which can be used with PBX and SIP servers.
It also supports multiple call control protocols, including not only SIP, H.323, MGCR and SCCP but also an original protocol called IAX2. In the USA, an IP telephone configured with IAX2 is already on sale. Asterisk can also be used as a protocol translation gateway.
Useful strategy for system integration
A venture company, offering an IP telephone systems with Asterisk, has emerged in Japan. The circumstances to compete in a Japanese market, however, atr not so easy.
Unlike Europe and Northern America, a call usually reaches each department in Japan. So telephones in Japan usually have keys for individual functions for transfer and call pickup, whereas, Asterisk typically has no special buttons for original functions.
[Denphone K.K. ed-note - Asterisk IP telephones with predefined keys for such functions are in fact widely available]
However, the concept of telephone technology use among Japanese companies appears to be shifting. Emphasis is building to integrate telephone functions with other IT tools, servers and applications. it is expected that Asterisk will play a growing role in this IT/telphony integration, as it operates with Linux, which has an open API and software base.
Huw Richard Williams is President of The InVitesse Group [Denphone K.K.], the first venture company in Japan selling communication boards which are adaptable to Asterisk. He states, "It is very easy to connect Asterisk with other web servers. Click-to-call function of telephones can also be programmed into CRM applications or web based groupware. All of them are free of charge"(see, picture here). We expect that Asterisk will force change in a Japanese IP market.
NOTE: This article is quoted from the Nikkei Communications magazine 12/15 issue, p53. Translated by Denphone K.K. / The InVitesse Group
Denphone K.K. is a maker of PBX solutions
The InVitesse Group is the consulting arm of Denphone K.K. and provides custom telephony solutions based on customer requirements
