Vonage 2014 Annual Report Download - page 8

Table of Contents
4 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2014
4G and the extended features provide caller ID as if the user were calling
from their office. Additional features include the ability to update account
profiles, manage devices, and contact call logs directly from their mobile
devices. We also offer virtual extensions, which connects employees to
a business phone number through their mobile phones. A virtual
extension comes with its own dedicated direct dial number which is then
forwarded to the mobile phone, allowing employees to be reached from
anywhere.
Through Telesphere, we focus on customers for whom
guaranteed quality of service and uniformity of services across all
locations is critical. We deliver services to this customer base over our
private, nation-wide, high quality IP MPLS network using over 17
network Points of Presence (POPs) that allow us to deliver dedicated,
secure and private bandwidth utilizing all forms of last mile technologies
including T1, NxT1, EoC and Fiber and bandwidth ranging from 1.5Mbps
to 1Gbps. Services we deliver include Wide Area Networking (WAN),
Internet Access, MPLS VPN, Managed Firewall, Hosted UCaaS, Hosted
Video Conferencing, Web Collaboration, Secure Instant Messaging &
Presence, Mobility and Fixed Mobile Convergence, and Hosted Contact
Center among others.
The feature sets available through Telesphere are packaged
into Premium, Standard and Trunking offerings. Premium licenses
include advanced features such as Single Number Reach (one number,
many devices including desk phone, tablets and smartphones), Shared
Line Appearance, Busy Lamp Field, Phone Paging, Outlook Integration,
IM, Presence, and Video. Telesphere also delivers SIP Trunking, over
the same network, to customers using premises PBXs, with the ability
to overlay UCaaS features where the premises PBX is deficient or for
Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity requirements. This product also
supports a hybrid deployment where some locations may be fully hosted
and others may continue to use the premises PBX. This strategy is
termed “cap-&-grow” wherein the customer caps their investment in
premises hardware and grows their business with hosted services.
All Telesphere customers also receive access to a custom-
built Customer Portal through which they can fully administer all
services, online bill pay, manage trouble tickets, manage bandwidth and
services, access detailed Call Analytics, and execute fully electronic
Moves, Adds and Changes.
NETWORK OPERATIONS
Our network operations are conducted by a wholly-owned
subsidiary that holds our networking equipment and employs the
personnel who develop and operate our technology.
The Vonage network uses our customer’s existing high-speed
broadband Internet service to allow calls over the Internet either from a
standard telephone through a Vonage-enabled device or through soft
phone software or mobile client applications. Our consumer and Vonage
Business Solutions services are not dependent on any specific type or
provider of Internet service, and our customers are free to change their
Internet service provider in response to a competitive alternative, or
because they have moved to a different location. For many of our
Telesphere customers, unified communications services are delivered
over the Company's private, nation-wide, high quality IP MPLS network
under multi-year contracts to provide the high level of interconnection
quality and the ability to offer service level agreements (SLA)
guaranteeing certain levels of voice service performance. Our Vonage-
enabled devices, soft phone software, and mobile client applications
allow our customers to be authenticated and authorized to access our
network in a secure manner.
Our network is scalable and geographically distributed for
robustness, high availability, and reliability across multiple call
processing sites, using regional data interconnection points, where calls
to non-Vonage customers are interconnected with the public switched
telephone network. We periodically assess the locations of our regional
data connection points in connection with efforts to improve the quality
of and efficiency in delivering our service. In 2014, we consolidated
certain interconnection points, increasing efficiencies. Our
interconnections with the public switched telephone network, or IP/SIP
networks, are made pursuant to commercial agreements we have with
several telecommunications providers. Under these agreements, we
transfer calls originated by our customers to other carriers who connect
the call to the called party or connect peer to peer. We have a varying
degree of settlement arrangements with our carrier partners for indirect
third party or direct termination of our calls. The calls are routed from
our network to other carriers’ interconnected circuits at co-location
facilities in which we lease space. This method of connecting to the
public switched telephone or IP/SIP networks allows us to expand
capacity quickly, as necessary to meet call volume, and to provide
redundancy within our network. In 2014, we continued to enhance our
call routing platform, increasing our control over call routing which
lowered costs and improved call quality.
Because Vonage’s system is not constrained to use any
specific broadband service provider to connect to our customers, we
can centrally manage and share resources across our customer base
to minimize capital investment when entering new markets.
The following are also important in supporting our network
operations:
> Network Operations Center. We currently maintain a network
operations center at our headquarters with monitoring
redundancies at several points within our network. The
network operations center monitors and manages the status
and health of our network elements, allowing us to manage
our network in real time, respond to alert notifications, and
re-route network traffic as needed. We pursue a multi-faceted
approach to managing our network to ensure high call quality
and reliable communications services to our customers. At
Vonage Business Solutions and Telesphere, we have network
operations centers on-site to monitor and manage network
traffic. We may consolidate these network operations centers
in the future if greater efficiencies can be obtained.
> Back Office Systems. In addition to our network management
systems, we have developed a number of software systems
that enable us to manage our network and service offerings
more efficiently and effectively. Key aspects of these systems
include:
> Network Quality Metrics. We have implemented a
suite of advanced Big Data analysis tools that allow
us to monitor and troubleshoot the performance of
our calling and data network, customer premises
equipment, and other associated calling elements
in real-time. This suite is proprietary and was
developed specifically to address the needs that
Vonage has in monitoring, analyzing,
understanding, troubleshooting, maintaining, and
operating a world-class consumer VoIP platform.
> Web Portal. We provide a fully functional customer
Web portal that allows our customers to configure
and manage almost all aspects of their service on
the Internet without requiring intervention of a
customer-care representative. The portal permits
customers to add and change features and phone
numbers, update billing information, and access
call usage and billing details.
> Emergency Calling Service and Enhanced 911 Service. We
have deployed E-911 service to approximately 99.99% of our
U.S. residential and small and home office customer base
that is comparable to the emergency calling services provided
to customers of traditional wireline telephone companies in
the same area. Our E-911 service does not support the calls
of our soft phone software users. The emergency calls of our
soft phone software users are supported by a national call
center. Not all Vonage products require 911 service
capabilities, such as our mobile client products but we are
fully compliant with FCC E911 requirements for VOIP
Interconnected providers. To enable us to effectively deploy