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Why VoIP Needs to Go Green

138 days ago
Traditional telephony Is VoIP greener than most traditional telephony technologies? While some individuals believe that VoIP is more environmentally friendly than the telecoms, we felt hesitant to agree. VoIP, after all, employs the Internet to operate, and network communications — along with their data centers and other resources — are notoriously energy hungry. According to Gartner Research, increasing energy costs, green technology, and increased environmental regulations pose significant challenges to corporate IT departments. On the other hand, telephone companies such as Telinet in the UK [PDF], are urging clients to recycle their current equipment and avoid the possible energy crunch involved with switching to VoIP. But, is this message true? According to a Citel white paper, the deployment of an environmentally conscious VoIP network need not cost more, and in fact may cost substantially less, “providing a compelling balance between economics and corporate responsibility.” Faced with competition to go green and the looming energy crunch, we feel that VoIP needs to step up their incentives and that individuals and businesses need to rethink their responsibilities for lowering impacts on immediate environments. To that end, the following list offers some questions and answers on greener solutions for VoIP and telecom users. It’s the consumer, after all, who drives the telecom and VoIP industries. * Should you replace or alter existing TDM PBX? This question offers multiple confusion, as telecoms might want users to remain faithful to a TDM (Time-Division Multiplexing) PBX since it does use bandwidth effectively. But, when users replace a TDM PBX with an energy-efficient server-based IP PBX or a hosted VoIP service, they can reduce power consumption dramatically. By pooling resources with other companies at an off-premises server center, users can see a reduction in power consumption as well as more efficient control over the server environment. With that said, VoIP users can generate interest in off-site companies that employ solar energy for their data centers. This effort can make solar energy a more viable resource for everyone. On the other hand, there also is no reason to buy into the VoIP vendor’s insistence over buying a totally new system, as TDM PBX systems can be altered to become VoIP-friendly. more»
 

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