Where are the innovators in interconnect voice?

To participate in the technology marketplace today is to participate in a dynamic, rapidly evolving world where the only constant is change. That change is brought on by the innovators.  Innovation is this generation’s “gold rush” or “industrial age”.  Technology is reshaping the world in ways we can’t even comprehend. Innovation is the “invisible hand” of every industry. The same is true in the interconnect voice world.
So, where are the innovators in interconnect voice? Who are they? What are they doing? How are they impacting the communications industry?
When it comes to voice, it seems as though the innovators who created the technology that changed the 20th century have left the industry in pursuit of other areas to innovate.  It seems as though there is not a lot of R&D being invested in making voice better.  But, that’s because the investment is in areas of the voice industry that aren’t readily seen by the consumer or user of voice services.
Today, the innovation is coming in the areas of automation, scale and quality.  It’s in NFV and Real-time Analytics Processing. It’s in Automation, Big Data, Scalability and Cloud infrastructure.  It’s in Business Intelligence, Real-Time Analytics, QoS.  It’s in new business models.
It’s all about lowering costs and improving quality.  It’s in scale and reliability, and making the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of running a voice services business as close to absolute zero as is possible. That’s where the innovation lies. Our partners, such as Metaswitch and Infobright, are working with us in pursuit of these goals. We are continuously innovating in our platform and our solution sets to deliver value to our customers and to get us as close as we can to the lowest cost of operation available in the marketplace.
So, to the initial question, “Where are the innovators in interconnect voice?”  The answer is, “We are everywhere and we are working hard at delivering the solutions needed.”   Over the next few years carriers are going to be able to improve the service they deliver to their customer while operating their voice business at the lowest cost basis ever.  After that, we will start on our next innovation...