The advantages of a converged IP solution in the family home are great, the cost-savings and labour-savings can certainly add up, too.

 

The Smiths are a family of 5 - Alan Smith, his wife Barbara, and their three teenage children, Charlie - 19, Donna, 17 and Eddie, 15.  It is no co-incidence that their names are alphabetical, nor that the children were born 2 years apart.  How any family could realistically survive 3 teenagers living at home is far beyond the scope of this document, so for the purposes of this study, we will pretend, although we have recently completed a project of very similar specification.

 

Mum and Dad are fed up of slow internet, the phone being constantly tied up, having to run up and down with the phone for the children, taking messages, and doing all the things that parents of 3 teenagers would spend most of their 'leisure-time' doing.  Enter the team from Nidd.Networks.

 

The parents are traditionalists, the want to keep their phone for THEM.  So, we source an internet provider who can provide a faster, and more complete internet solution, whilst allowing them to keep their own line and number.  We get them a nice new shiny wireless router, and they're ready to go - unlimited internet usage at much increased speeds for the whole family.

 

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Step 2 - make the kids contactable.  We add a small unit to the wireless router, which is a Voice-over-IP gateway, and each child is issued with a cordless handset.  Each handset has its own phone number for INCOMING CALLS, in the Smith's home dialing code area - for this guide, we'll assume Wetherby, so 01937.  These extra INCOMING lines use the Smiths' broadband connection, so there's no extra line-rental to pay. 

 

In addition to this, each of the kids' lines has its own customisable voice-mail, which will record messages when the phone isn't answered, and automatically forward the message to their email account as an audio-attachment (.mp3 file) so they can listen to their messages wherever they may be.

 

Charlie wants to use his line to phone his friends too.  Simples.  He logs into the online portal, and 'tops up' his line, in a similar manner to Pay-and-Go mobile phones.  He can then use his phone, until his credit has run out.  There is no expiry on credit, so it will last until used!