CRG West Brings Voice Peering Fabric to One Wilshire Building

TMCnet Associate Editor

CRG West announced yesterday that it has brought Voice Peering Fabric (VPF) to the One Wilshire Building in Los Angeles – one of the key points connecting the communications world together.

CRG West operates the One Wilshire Building, which is home to more than 220 communications carriers, including: AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Global Crossing, Level 3, MCI WorldCom, Pac West, Qwest, Sprint, Verizon and XO Communications.

VPF, which was developed by Stealth Communications (which is also operated by CRG West), is a distributed Ethernet network which functions as a voice exchange, or meeting-point, for VoIP traffic. It is considered to be one of the largest VoIP peering points in the world.

VPF and other peering points offer a way for VoIP service providers to link networks and exchange traffic, routing it around the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and avoiding the less secure public Internet. It enables enterprises and service providers to establish peer-to-peer connections in a private, secure, quality-of-service environment.

VPF is now located in nine U.S. cities and London and serves more than 100 organizations around the world. Now in its third year of service, it carried more than 18 billion VoIP minutes in 2005.

“The VPF and its community are committed to enhancing and accelerating business activities within One Wilshire,” said Shrihari Pandit, CEO and Founder of Stealth Communications, in a news release. “Many international carrier entry points to North America are at One Wilshire, and their participation in the VPF community has just become easier.”

Voice Peering Fabric has gained the attention of the entire telecom industry as well as other industries. VPF members trade minutes and access critical telecom database services at a fraction of existing wholesale and transit costs through the VPF Minutes Market and VPF ASP Market. The VPF ENUM Registry, housing more than 10 million numbers, remains the largest production ENUM database for free call termination.

”One Wilshire is rapidly emerging as the heart of the VoIP industry,” said John Savageau, senior vice president of telecom operations at CRG-West. “The VPF will contribute a powerful telecom and business utility enabling more than 100 tenant VoIP-related companies within One Wilshire to easily interconnect at local, national and international levels. The VPF is a visionary concept and will provide a strong catalyst for accelerating international development of VoIP.”

An operating partner of The Carlyle Group, CRG West was formed in 2001 to oversee and enhance strategic telecom assets owned by Carlyle Realty Group. The One Wilshire Building (Los Angeles), Market Post Tower (San Jose, home of the MAE West), and 1275 K Street (Washington, DC) are the core assets under CRG West management.

For more information about CRG West visit www.crgwest.com.

For more information about Stealth Communications visit www.stealth.net.

Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.