SIP-based VoIP Wake Up Call Service
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[May 16, 2008]

SIP-based VoIP Wake Up Call Service

Originally posted on VoIP & Gadgets Blog, here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/sipbased-voip-wake-up-call-service.asp.

The beauty of VoIP and the corresponding SIP standard is the ease at which applications can be developed. Today, I learned about a wake-up-call service on www.sipservices.gr that leverages the SIP standard to allow you to schedule wake-up-calls. The software app called “Wake up Easy Voip Service” simply registers as a SIP extension to your existing SIP-based IP-PBX, waits for inbound extension calls, plays a prompt, you enter your wake-up time, and voila', the system will call you at the designated time. This is perfect application for hotels that are migrating to a VoIP phone system. Also, it leverages CallerID (your hotel room extension number) to figure out which room to call.
SIP-based Wake Up Easy Software



The application works well with the Windows-based 3CX IP-PBX system, but since it's SIP-based it should work with other SIP-based IP-PBXs as well. Of course, this is paid "licensed" software, and I should point out that you can get free wake-up calls on Asterisk (News - Alert) using Nerd Vittles wake-up call recipe that I wrote about. With this particular solution you can dial into the Asterisk system and after entering in your PIN you can actually speak (speech recognition) the date & time you want along with your calendar reminder message and the system will record the reminder into the calendar.

The www.sipservices.gr website is a little sparse, and English isn't the primary language since I see typos and grammatical errors all over the place. Obviously, an entrepreneur/one-man shop, but I don't hold that against him or her. Though I did cringe a little when I read on their website that it uses a Microsoft Access (.mdb) back-end database. Well, I guess that keeps the license fees down vs say Oracle or MS SQL Server.



In the past, wake-up call systems required dedicated analog ports on the PBX (News - Alert) connected to a 3rd party adjunct system running the wake-up calling hardware and software, including expensive telephony cards. With VoIP, you still require software and a PC to run the application, but the need for telephony hardware is gone. It's all done over SIP. I'm surprised I haven't seen more SIP-based wake-up calling software applications. I'm sure Cisco. Avaya (News - Alert), and Nortel offer a wake-up calling application for vertical markets such as hotel chains, but they probably charge an arm & a leg. Go check it out.


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Discussions:
OK, the service is interesting, though certainly no different than what is available on the PSTN today. It's just that nobody offered this on the PSTN, except hotels for hotel guests and such. I believe we need to look for more interesting applications than yet another voice application running on IP.
 
5/18/2008 12:48:10 AM
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