Solution eliminates need for costly circuit-switched dedicated lines In traditional Hoot and Holler networks
NEW YORK, NY, Securities Industry Association Technology Conference, June 20, 2000--Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced the availability of Cisco Hoot and Holler over IP using Cisco multiservice platforms. Traditional Hoot and Holler networks are a point-to-multipoint voice application and are commonly used by brokerage firms to advise brokers on market movements. These firms spend millions of dollars in monthly leased line charges to pay for dedicated circuit-switched long-distance connections used to implement traditional Hoot and Holler networks. Cisco Hoot and Holler over IP enables customers to eliminate most of these expensive circuit-switched telephony charges by carrying Hoot and Holler voice traffic over their own IP network.
Cisco Hoot and Holler over IP is an example of how enterprises are leveraging their data networks to carry voice traffic, which allows them to implement New World applications never before possible.
Cisco's Hoot and Holler over IP solution protects the existing investment that financial and trading industry corporations already have in Hoot and Holler end points, such as turrets, bridges, and four-wire hoot phones. Cisco Hoot and Holler over IP is implemented via a simple Cisco IOS software upgrade and is easily deployed over Cisco multiservice networks. As existing turrets and hoot phones evolve into IP terminals, Cisco Hoot and Holler over IP will operate seamlessly with these new devices also.
"We are currently testing the two-way Hoot and Holler over IP software developed by Cisco," said Mark Katz, vice president, engineering, at PaineWebber Incorporated. "PaineWebber agreed to be a beta test site and will work with Cisco's development staff to ensure full compatibility with our existing IP infrastructure and branch delivery equipment. We are scheduled for a pilot branch rollout in the fourth quarter and general deployment for our retail branch offices nationwide in 2001."
Standards-based Cisco Hoot and Holler over IP conserves bandwidth, scales to hundreds of remote offices, and offers flexible interfaces for end-terminals. Bandwidth to remote sites can be conserved through the use of IP header compression, numerous supported codecs, and the use of IP multicast. Cisco's mature multicast technology provides scalability to hundreds of remote users. Digital turrets and analog four-wire hoot phones and bridges can be seamlessly connected to T1 and E&M voice interfaces that are integrated into Cisco 2600 and Cisco 3600 series modular multiservice access platforms.
"As the established leader in Enterprise VoIP, with more than 80% market share, Cisco is committed to extending its expertise to dynamic vertical markets like the financial services industry," said Youngsoo Ryu, vice president and general manager of Cisco's IP Access business unit. "Through the combination of Cisco's voice over IP, integrated audio mixing and IP multicast with traditional Hoot and Holler technology, customers will continue to experience the quality and functionality of traditional circuit-switched Hoot and Holler networks with dramatic cost savings. We feel that the long term value of this convergence will be in the ability to provide services and features never before possible from traditional circuit-switched Hoot and Holler networks."
Pricing and availability
Cisco Hoot and Holler over IP is supported on the Cisco 2600 and Cisco 3600 series modular multiservice access platforms using either analog or digital modular voice interfaces. This new feature is available now using the latest release of standard Cisco IOS voice enabled software.
