|
VoIP Week in Review from TMCnet: VoIP Big Guns
TMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist
This week, the VoIP Minute Watch got news from some of the big guns of the VoIP industry including Level3, Intrado, AT&T, Global Crossing, and Tekelec.
Level3 Communications announced on Monday it was tapped by cable operator Patriot Media of New Jersey to power Patriot Digital Phone, its new digital phone service. Patriot, which serves about 115,000 households, launched its digital phone service last month. The new multiyear agreement calls for Level3 to provide Patriot with the (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service, which is comprised of a fixed-line system for E911 that includes network connections to public safety answering points (PSAPs).
"Level3 has been an integral partner and advisor to Patriot Media as we built and deployed our digital phone service for residential consumers," noted Rob Roeder, vice president of network services for Patriot Media. "We recognized early on that Level3 was and continues to be the enabler of advanced voice services that we wanted to work with to deliver our customers high-quality and reliable digital calling services."
"Intrado remains focused on helping our customers address the changing demands new technologies are placing on the nation's 9-1-1 system," noted Stephen Meer, Intrado chief technology officer. "The Acme Packet Net-Net session border controller has the high degree of reliability required by Intrado for its public safety class solutions."
Intrado also made news on Thursday when it agreed to interconnect with local exchange carriers' 9-1-1 selective routers and to steer dynamic location info into their regional E911 auto location information (ALI) databases in the event of a VoIP 9-1-1 call. Thanks to the agreement, VoIP Service Providers (VSPs) will now be able to deliver E911 calls originating on their IP network natively from virtually anywhere in the country. VSPs have been mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide E911 service to their VoIP customers. Intrado claims that its V9-1-1 Mobility Service provides VSPs with an FCC compliant solution.
"Comprehensive E9-1-1 coverage for VoIP consists of interconnection agreements, ALI steering agreements, and the ability to provide caller location information to the 9-1-1 call taker in an MSAG valid format," said Stephen Meer, Intrado chief technology officer and co-founder. "The Intrado VoIP 9-1-1 solution addresses all three points with one provider."
AT&T announced Tuesday it was awarded with a $10.5 million, three-year IP VPN contract from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) in order to integrate the company’s global voice and data networks for 80 locations in 20 countries. Heidelberg is a German systems provider for commercial and industrial customers in the print media industry.
The bell also made news this week when it signed a contract extension with Ford Motor Co. to provide a portfolio of voice and data networking services. The agreement calls for the telecom giant to provide a custom-designed bundle of services to the American automobile manufacturer and its Hertz subsidiary. Specifically, the bell will provide the backbone architecture for Ford's own private IP VPN network. Amongst the services included are a private line, frame relay and ATM.
This week, the Minute also heard from Global Crossing. The company received a contract renewal for up to six-and-one-half years by European IT services provider Steria to keep working on a criminal justice IP VPN project. The project supports services under the UK Offender Management National Infrastructure (OMNI) contract recently awarded to Steria.
Under the contract, Global Crossing will provide its managed government IP VPN service to the National Offender Management Service's (NOMS) 1,000 sites across the UK. Global Crossing has been Steria's partner for the past ten years providing the IT services company with managed data services to the National Probation Service (NPS), now part of NOMS.
According to Tekelec, its T7000 will allow Wheat State Telephone to remain in compliance with regulatory requirements for local number portability (LNP) and the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA). The T7000 Class 5 packet switch integrates with either IP or time division multiplexing (TDM) interfaces, enabling a smoother network migration to VoIP.
There you have it folks, another exciting week in the VoIP industry! Stay tuned and read the VoIP Minute Watch for the latest news…
-----
Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne Torres' columnist page
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
TMCnet LOGIN
Webinars
