To carry on business effectively, users must be able to conduct conversations as if they were in the same room with the person on the other end of the line.

With the latest codecs, audio quality on IP phones now surpasses what was previously possible on analog or even non-IP digital phones. But to attain business-level clarity and immediacy, the network must deliver sufficient bandwidth to support the voice traffic and provide the quality of service prioritization that prevents latency, “jitter” and prolonged call setups.

Just as important, the network must be able to reliably deliver a dial tone across the entire organization, over both wired and wireless installations. Phone users have long been accustomed to virtually 100% uptime. Many businesses cannot tolerate interruptions in their telephony service, losing money by the second when calls fail to get through. So a Voice Ready Network must provide high-availability, with the capability to support additional survivability features such as resilient links, uninterruptible power or back-up systems if required.