[30.11.2007 first posted on silicon republic]
Working on behalf of AIB to develop its next-generation integrated data and voice network Eircom said today that it is planning to launch the country’s largest and most advanced VoIP (voice over internet protocol) network to date.

This new VoIP network will be fully installed and operational by March 2008.
Spanning AIB’s Bankcentre 1 and new Bankcentre 2 campus, 5,000 Cisco IP phones will be used across the company’s IP telephony IT infrastructure as part of the ‘One Network IP Telephony Project’.
The second phase of the One Network project will make available IP-based contact centre functions to AIB call centre agents dealing with AIB customers.
While this project went live earlier in June it will develop to further stages that will implement more advanced IP telephony features like call recording, call centre call routing technology and announcement functionality.
Colm Hoban, director of enterprise and government solutions at Eircom, said: “We are delighted to have been selected by AIB for this mission-critical project.
“One Network is an excellent example of innovation in using next-generation networking to deliver business benefits and innovative financial services.
“As a Cisco Gold Partner, our technical team at Lan Communications played an integral part in the success of the project.”
The reason why this VoIP network will not just be the largest but also one of the most advanced in the country is that as well as using core technology with Cisco IPT servers and routers the telco also added more functionality: gateways to existing analogue phone networks, call tracking and data traffic monitoring for optimum bandwidth requirements.
Paul Williams, IT executive, AIB, said: “The AIB and Eircom teams benefited from structured programme management to deliver the new network on time and on budget, while meeting demanding test criteria for quality, performance, reliability and resilience.”
By Marie Boran