Low Cost Routing Vendors Need To Embrace VOIP Solutions
LCR is the method whereby vendors direct phone calls via the most cost effective carriers and routes at any given time.
Although VOIP is considered as the new revolutionary cost-savings mechanism to herald in an era of low call costs and converged communication mediums, it is yet to mature and become a tool to cater for the needs of businesses broadly. The reality is however that VOIP and associated technologies will indeed evolve and mature, leading to a shrinking market for the traditional LCR-vendors.
These factors considered it is clear that LCR vendors are going to have to gear themselves up to not only offer LCR services but to broaden their offering to include VoIP solutions, even thought the adoption of this technology will take a year or two. Those LCR companies who do not re-invent themselves face serious business viability risks.
This is according to James Herbst from DataPro, "LCR is certainly not dead, but it is slowly losing market share and those companies involved in this market – and there are some big businesses, turning over millions annually – are going to have to start embracing VoIP over the next few years if they are to stay abreast of changing technological times."
Commenting further, Herbst said VoIP – legalised earlier this year – and LCR will co-exist for a few years. He also described LCR "as a stepping stone" into the more effective VoIP solutions, especially for smaller companies who currently cannot justify, or afford, the overall costs of implementing VoIP, including increased bandwidth requirements.
"Service Providers who think they can carry on as LCR purists are going to have to realise that time is against them. They are going to have to start re-engineering their businesses."
Some of the bigger companies operating in SA that currently offer LCR solutions are Orion, Storm and Definity Telecomms.
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