Voice Quality: Has the Sears Model Resurfaced?Voice Quality: Has the Sears Model Resurfaced?

The old "good, better, best" model may be the norm for quality, but for reliability, there should be less room for error.

The old Sears model of "good, better and best" seems to describe the nature of voice availability in the current times.

We've witnessed first hand the cellular generation's willingness to put up with dropped calls and almost-as-good-as-landline service. The cord cutting may not be over for those that continue to discover that placing calls over the Internet yields "almost as good" results at a huge discount over the PSTN.

In our couple of years of using SIP trunks, we've had very few problems, and the problems we did have weren’t worth pursuing let alone tracking, logging and attempting to gain resolution. I'm not advocating not using tools and monitoring, or to ignore issues. I'm simply stating I've learned to pick my SIP trunk battles and unless it's something service-impacting or repetitive and with frequency, then I'm not putting time in on packet sniffs and trouble isolation.

Maybe the PSTN, long considered a first-class route, still reigns, but folks at Verizon are busy explaining why 911 failed for days in my area. The utility companies are facing stiff fines for not acting fast enough from recent devastating "derecho" storms hitting my area. Then, Tony Lewis, a regional VP from Verizon stated in a news interview the reason for failure was, "Power, network and mechanical failures of redundant systems," and this pretty much tells the tale.

2.3 million people remained without 911 from June 29 until service was fully restored on July 3, and more meetings and hearings continue, with Verizon scrambling to defend themselves. I can't help but wonder if they're missing the chance to mend their ways and procedures to strengthen their network instead. It certainly can't be because they don't have the funds.

Managed service providers (MSPs) and data centers should learn from this. When a first class operation fails to maintain and keep their redundant mechanical systems in order, then expect huge losses. Sure, there's lots of finger pointing, with utility companies faulting the weather and trees. Local government officials are bickering over the costs of direct buried services, but they fail to see the direct costs associated with affected infrastructure, and then because of the failures, the indirect costs are massive--loss of business, productivity, spoilage and the list goes on.

Verizon is earning premium dollars, but it's hard to believe they're spending them on an infrastructure that is supposedly 911 grade. Cellular services were also disrupted in our area and we had customers without any dial tone. MPLS and PSTN service were non-existent for days on some sites, due primarily to loss of power.

This storm proves that Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) is meaningless when the carriers are down. Power, network and mechanical--are all attributes of what any organization needs to have in place to maintain effective communications solutions, whether hosted or premise-based.

Long ago I mused that the data center would become the next Central Office (CO). I've also chuckled at the cost of hosted services and that companies can own their solution in 2-3 years, versus any hosted solution. A key concern is, while it may be cheaper to own your own gear, it isn't necessarily as easy to maintain always-on availability. Those same failures that Verizon must address are equally important to any enterprise. Then, when you consider recoverability, hosted services I think will wind up on the winning side.

Still, the real opportunity to learn may be twofold. For Verizon, I don't think they can be told, but if they were willing to listen, they need to get their mindset out of the Central Office (CO) business and get into data center thinking. For data centers and MSPs, learn from Verizon's mistakes and test your systems, including your backup generators.

Enterprises, don't assume your infrastructure is survivable; don't let the weather test its resolve, be proactive. Batteries are usually the single cause of many failures but when mechanical systems (backup generators and HVACs) break down, there's a gaping hole in the infrastructure and procedures that must be managed. Voice quality may be akin to the Sears model of good, better and best, but high availability trumps voice quality.