Difficulties in terms of cost

During the summer of 2001, our team started the development of a 4-channel corporate gateway as the fourth generation gateway counting from BS1100, the original VoIP gateway. It was the corporate gateway to be released as the successor of BV1250. Then I was approached with the idea of developing a broadband product. It wouldn't be easy, but it was a great opportunity. I quickly gathered the key persons of the team and examined the possibility of realizing this product. The fundamental technologies were already there. Although it was a challenge that involved great suffering, we felt that it was worth a try.

Two walls to overcome

The first was "price." In order to develop and deploy a gateway using broadband of telecommunication carriers, they must be provided at an extremely low price. There was a limit to how much design costs could be cutback. On the other hand, we felt that broadband lines were spreading faster than we anticipated and that we could sell enough in terms of quantity through proposal activities of Sales. If a good amount could be sold, the manufacturing cost could be decreased by mass production as well as discounts on larger volume for parts. The gap between current unit cost and ideal unit cost quickly shrunk, enabling us to see beyond the wall concerning price.

The second was "delivery." Short-term development always caused problems, whether it was design quality or manufacturing. From a developer's point of view, it was desirable to keep the initial lot to a minimum and enter mass production once the quality becomes stable.

Although our team members were highly skilled in the development of VoIP devices, meeting the deadline was difficult when considering the plan including manufacturing. As indicated previously, development of a corporate gateway already in the planning stage cannot simply be aborted. Completing the development of both products seemed almost impossible without a miracle.

The reason why I decided to accept the development challenge, which we knew would cause hardships, was that not one member of the team rejected the idea. Each member felt a special significance in the development of a broadband gateway. I believe members had a burning ambition as engineers to see the development through and to see for themselves the dawn of IP telephony that was beginning to appear on the horizon.

Broadband development project starts

In tandem, a number of related projects were launched other than the model I was in charge of. These include a broadband center device and other indoor devices. When I was certain the phenomenon of voice communication integrating with broadband was not limited to within offices but the consumer market as well, I came to hold a new point of view.