GTE Internetworking has introduced its
international Voice over IP service.
The GTE ((GTE)
offer enables next-generation communications companies to carry their
customers’ voice traffic over a high quality managed IP network.
The new service provides wholesale voice transport and termination to
international communications companies. Internet service providers and
Internet telephony service providers that partner with GTE can offer
customers the ability to send international voice and fax traffic over GTE
Internetworking’s privately managed IP network.
VoIP employs IP gateways that packetize a caller’s voice and transmit the
information over an IP network to the called party’s telephone or
multimedia PC. The technology offers significant cost savings over
traditional telephone calls.
The GTE Internetworking system is built on the company’s Global Network
Infrastructure, not over the public Internet. GTE’s GNI is a private fiber
backbone spanning 17,000 miles in the U.S. with managed bandwidth
connectivity to Europe, South America and the Far East.
Paul R. Gudonis, GTE Internetworking president, said that demand for VoIP
services has made the international IP network a necessity.
“The market is rapidly evolving toward an IP-based converged data and voice
network, and the demand for Voice over IP and enhanced IP services is
exploding,” Gudonis said. “We ran extensive trials and tests of our IP
telephony network to help ensure that our VoIP service has the highest
quality available.”
Tiscali S.p.A. is one of the six
companies that have been granted a license from the Italian Ministry of
Communication to operate as a telecommunication carrier. Based in Cagliari,
Italy, Tiscali played a large part in testing the GTE VoIP service.
Gudnois said that initial tests with Tiscali proved very successful and
that the international VoIP network performed well.
“This initial service, the first in a series of market-driven VoIP
offerings from GTE Internetworking, has performed extremely well in trials
with Tiscali, an innovative, nextgen Internet and telephony services
provider in Italy,” Gudonis said.
Renato Soru, Tiscali chief executive officer, said partnering with GTE
Internetworking made if easy for the Italian telecommunications firm to
bring the new service to market.
“Working with GTE Internetworking has helped us dramatically reduce our
time to market in offering competitively priced international call services
to our end customers,” Soru said. “This partnership has provided us with
immediate access to a reliable global IP infrastructure with minimal
investment on our part. Our trial customers have been very pleased with the
quality of service we are providing through GTE Internetworking’s
International VoIP Direct Service.”
The service is offered to ISPs and ITSPs as part of Net.Alliance, GTE
Internetworking’s international business partner program. Net.Alliance is a
strategic international network of top-tier providers that resell GTE
Internetworking’s services.
GTE Internetworking’s VoIP service is based on open standards for voice
compression and interoperability. To provide high quality service, GTE
Internetworking has deployed an enhanced IP service network based on Cisco Systems carrier-class IP gateways
and gatekeepers. The dedicated system enables GTE Internetworking to
provide local call service to over 80 percent of U.S. metropolitan markets.
GTE uses an Intelligent Route Diversity technique to combine load
balancing, automated dynamic least cost routing, and failover features. IRD
assures carriers the best termination rates along with high reliable packet
transmission.
Kevin Kennedy, Cisco Systems senior vice president service provider
business lines, said the GTE system delivers next generation IP telephone
services over conventional networks.
“Cisco and GTE Internetworking have come together to develop an innovative
Voice over IP network that will empower next generation Telcos to realize
immediate cost savings while providing the foundation for delivering
enhanced IP services today and in the future,” Kennedy said.
