Home North AmericaNorth America II 2014 VoLTE vs. WebRTC? That’s the wrong question

VoLTE vs. WebRTC? That’s the wrong question

by Administrator
Mohammad NezaratiIssue:North America II 2014
Article no.:4
Topic:VoLTE vs. WebRTC? That’s the wrong question
Author:Mohammad Nezarati
Title:CEO
Organisation:Esna Technologies
PDF size:238KB

About author

Mohammad Nezarati, CEO, Esna Technologies

Mohammad founded Esna Technologies in 1989 to deliver innovative voice-applications to enterprise customers. As CEO and CTO, Mohammad oversees Esna’s strategy and product direction. Mohammad has over 20 years of leadership experience building profitable technology companies. Under his leadership, Esna has experienced tremendous growth in market share and established broad distribution channels including major phone and data networking vendors. Today Esna addresses multiple customer segments in over 30 countries globally. He was the primary architect and developer of the company’s original platform and award-winning solution, Officelinx™. Mohammad was honored with the Canadian CTI Pioneer award for his experience in the messaging and communications industry.

Prior to his founding of Esna, Mohammad was an Industrial Engineer, holding a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Toronto.

Article abstract

With more and more applications centered around the browser, WebRTC eliminates the need to rely on outside applications for communication and collaboration. When real-time communication functions are native in the browser, it makes them easier to use, easier to deploy and self-provision, and it will be a big cost and time saver for the enterprise. No more pushing software updates to everyone’s machine. Update once, and when users log into their browser next, new functionality is there and ready.

Full Article

Tools that support communication and collaboration are getting more and more attention as WebRTC makes it easier for everyone to connect. Even the Telco carriers are starting to take notice. Some even say that with the rise of WebRTC (web based, real-time communications), voice is becoming marginalized as consumers increasingly turn to video and text for real-time communication.
When the question is asked about whether VoLTE (Voice over LTE) can compete with WebRTC, my response is that this is the wrong question: VoLTE is a set of specifications being adopted by carriers to allow voice to run on both the traditional voice and data networks. It’s one more thing that the carriers can charge you for. To me, it’s not a game changer for users.
WebRTC on the other hand is not limited to mobile, it’s based on open standards and has the ability to really change the communications game for users. I believe that widespread adoption of the WebRTC application programming interface (API) actually holds some measure of risk to carriers looking to VoLTE as the future. As long as I have an IP address, I can stream from any device – whether mobile or desktop. When the consumer gets their communication and voice capability from within apps they buy elsewhere, the only thing the consumer really needs a Telco for is the pipe.

Embedded communications
In my view, the true potential of RTC lies not in a mobile-only platform like VoLTE, but rather in incorporating RTC into the apps that people use every day. With RTC – web or otherwise – the real value is in having ubiquitous access to communication and collaboration capabilities embedded inside other, vital business processes and available on any device.
When WebRTC is adopted broadly, and I believe it will be, it will enable point-to-point, browser-based or application-based, real-time communications that never pass through a telephone switch or VoIP server. In terms of the pace of adoption, a recent Dialogic survey showed that in just the past year, one in five respondents had launched a commercial solution and another 57% had solutions in development.
For wide adoption to occur, it’s critical that the communication process feel natural to end-users. As easy as dialing the phone. There are a ton of communication and collaboration applications available today for both desktop and mobile, but who wants to exit the app you are in and launch a separate program in order to simply talk with someone?
If you are a sales professional working in Salesforce, you want to start a video and voice call right from the contact file and have that activity automatically logged. If you’re an HR leader and you need to convene a real-time session with your team, you want to launch a meeting from inside your Jive team site, knowing who’s available and who’s not, and then archive the video in Jive for later playback. By making these types of capabilities possible, RTC eliminates the need for app-hopping.
WebRTC adoption will be driven by customer expectations
We know the way people communicate and collaborate together is rapidly changing. Video is no longer just for large companies with big infrastructure. Today, tools like Google Hangouts and Skype make having a video call as easy a traditional voice call.
Businesses everywhere need to adapt to how their customers and employees want to interact. A new generation of digital Millennials (young people between the ages of 18 and 29) use text and video communications as much or more than voice. It’s second nature to them; they started using Skype in high school. And they want to use real-time communications in the workplace the way they do in their off hours. In fact, 20 percent of Millennials in a recent survey said they wished their bosses would use chat and text more to communicate with them.
Expectations are growing that communication happens anywhere, from inside any process or app and on any device, whenever there is more than one person who might need to communicate. WebRTC will serve to accelerate the evolution of real-time voice and video by making them simple and accessible to anyone, right from the browser.

The browser as the new OS
With more and more applications centered around the browser, WebRTC eliminates the need to rely on outside applications for communication and collaboration. When real-time communication functions are native in the browser, it makes them easier to use, easier to deploy and self-provision, and it will be a big cost and time saver for the enterprise. No more pushing software updates to everyone’s machine. Update once, and when users log into their browser next, new functionality is there and ready.
I believe that the browser is actually becoming the new operating system. It’s where people spend most of their time. Apps are running in the browser, shared documents and social interaction are all enabled by the browser. If the browser truly is becoming the new operating system, people will also want to communicate from inside it.
RTC lets the browser become the communications device. In this paradigm, you don’t need to have an account, buy a subscription or start a membership – two people can just call each other based on their IP addresses. The beauty of point-to-point communications technology is that there isn’t anything to download and nothing to join. The other benefit of this type of communication is better security and privacy, as well as better call quality, since the calls are just going from point A to point B.
RTC is the future of Collaboration
So far, most of the conversation about WebRTC has been around voice and video, and much of it has been related to the development of standards and the fact that, to-date, only Google, Mozilla and Opera support. We’re seeing some mobile applications embedding RTC components in their applications thereby extending their use beyond these browsers.
But I feel that there is so much more potential here. We need to think bigger!
Consider that voice, text, email, video and screen sharing are all ultimately just bits of data being exchanged by two or more parties. WebRTC can work for any kind of real-time, peer-to-peer data sharing, it’s not limited to these methods of communicating.
For example, imagine if you were a salesperson and you could share your desktop with the prospect of a single click on the browser, to launch right into a demo. Or you’re a procurement specialist that needs to immediately speak to with a product line manager in a different geography to resolve an issue with a time sensitive purchase order. Even traditional customer service based on IVR becomes less relevant and even obsolete with RTC. Rather than navigating an unfriendly and time consuming phone tree, customers will be able to reach the specialist they need to speak with immediately.
So, do I see a competition between VoLTE and WebRTC? Not really. They are distinct technologies looking to address completely different problems. I think that enabling browser-based communication helps the Telco’s and everyone else alike. There is so much potential for this technology to enable functionality we haven’t even begun to think about yet.
There are many companies across North America—including Esna, Cisco, Avaya, Dialogic, OpenTok, Twilio and more—already innovating around RTC, even as the standards conversation continues. New solutions and products are being announced each month, and more and more enterprises are adopting RTC solutions that allow them to collaborate more easily, drive productivity up and costs down.
I think that any company who focuses on how real-time communications can better serve the end users of any product or service is going to find success.

Related Articles

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More