Voice: the next programmable web?

Amid all the talk of "mashups" and programmable Web sites, entrepreneur Prem Uppaluru has found another compelling programmable network, one constructed by the likes of Ma Bell.

Uppaluru is co-founder and CEO of Transera, a two-year old company which has developed a hosted service for managing outsourced call center operations. He sees an opportunity in providing businesses with tools to route customer service calls to multiple locations and monitor those operations remotely.

To ride the uplift in call center outsourcing, Transera is taking advantage of significant technology changes in voice networks, which are just starting to be exploited, he said.

In particular, Transera has taken advantage of SIP, Session Initiation Protocol, and the use of IP in telephony networks. SIP allows Transera's software, for example, to queue up a call in the carrier's network before routing and monitor it remotely.

"Everyone has talked about the transition of our networks to IP. The value proposition is not that bits are moving as IP packets instead of circuit switches," Uppaluru said. "The real impact is that the network can be made available to end users."

To build its call center application, Transera engineers used XML and other standard protocols. Using standard-based development tools on a standards-based network opens up a range of application possibilities, Uppaluru said.

Transera has plans to build other services that tap into the "application-aware network," including an exchange where outsourcers and enterprise customers can put out bids for work.

Customers need to have SIP-enabled phones, a broadband connection and a contract for Voice over IP to use the service, a substantially simpler and cheaper approach compared to installing proprietary voice-routing gear in multiple locations, said Uppaluru.

Just as more and more applications are being hosted online, Uppaluru envisions the same thing happening on the voice network.

"Everyone from the enterprise applications area is entering into the telecom world because the Internet is an open network," he said. "Let's take the same approach to the telecom network, which has gone through a significant transformation??and make it a programmable network."