XConnect To Offer Free HD Peering Trial

ITEXPO — Accelerating the movement toward end-to-end interconnections between IP service providers, peering federation provider XConnect said that it will launch a free trial of an IP peering federation for service providers that offer high-definition voice services. Lasting from April to June, the trial will allow operators that use the G.722 wideband codec for HD voice to interconnect without fees.

The trial is open to “qualified operators,” who have a minimum number of HD subscribers and who can take advantage of the interconnection and interoperability features that XConnect offers. Mark Benisz, XConnect’s vice president for the Americas, said that the trial will comprise 15 to 20 providers.

“We need to create awareness that HD across networks is viable and available today,” added Benisz in an interview at ITEXPO in Miami. “Hopefully this will create the necessary energy to move forward for more adoption of rich services like HD.”

Creating end-to-end IP bridges between “islands” of VoIP service has become a critical goal for competitive service providers. In October, Alteva and SimpleSignal established a peering relationship that allows callers to interconnect over their networks without traversing the legacy PSTN. Sprung from discussions at the first CTO Summit, held at the VON Conference & Expo in Miami in September, the Alteva-Simple Signal relationship was the first of its kind between VoIP providers.

At the Pacific Telecom Council conference in Honolulu earlier this week, peering provider PacketExchange said it will acquire Mzima Networks to expand its end-to-end all-IP network. The combined company will provide a new, global, next-generation IP and WAN network, said PacketExchange CEO Rick Mace, offering services to more than 500 customers and hundreds of points of presence in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Eventually these systems will merge into a “federation of federations” linking networks across the globe, added Benisz. “The way that SMS took off in Europe, once the cross-network links were put in place, this will be beginning of that for HD voice.”