Construction Sites Communications: A Framework for Enabling the Use of Internet Protocol Telephony in Construction Sites (IPTCS)

Over the past decades, construction firms have been using several off-the-shelf telecommunications services to provide the communication means necessary to their mobile personnel on the jobsite. Despite this the traditional telecommunication systems are nowadays offering a wider range of services to the construction industry, but they are still considered expensive and inflexible. This paper reports on the possibilities of using Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony in the construction industry. The take up of this technology within the industry has not been observed despite the technological advancements in this area. This could be attributed to two main reasons, the slow nature of construction firms to embrace new technologies on the one hand, and the lack of awareness of technologies’ developers and systems integrators to take into consideration the unique nature of construction sites environments needs on the other hand. This issue could possibly be resolved if the two sectors come to understand one another’s requirements. To eliminate the underlying gap between the parties and overcome the implementation barriers of IP Telephony, the authors propose a theoretical framework, referred to in this paper as IPTCS (Internet Protocol Telephony in Construction Sites). It is expected that such a framework will add value to both the services providers and the construction industry supply chain alike.