On Friday I had the opportunity to chat in advance of this announcement with Mike Yancey, Director of Wholesale Voice Product Management with Verizon Business. Mike laid out some plans for an interesting new offering that's just being announced. The press release is below, but here's what I leared.

The new Carrier IP Termination Transport is really a service targeted at carriers wanting to terminate calls on the PSTN anywhere. Unlike an earlier service (Carrier Termination SIP), under the new offering, calls don't have to originate in IP. This means carriers offering hybrid services (TDM and VoIP, wired or wireline) can now leverage a single service, connection and rate structure, to hand calls off to Verizon for termination on the PSTN.

As Mike described this new service to me, it's far more granular than the earlier service. Previously the Carrier Termination SIP service had a single pricing class and required IP origination. This serivce has been more oriented to the earlier stat boundary and LATA structure. The new service offers more granularity to Verizon's carrier customers with eight service classes or structures. And it's technolgoy agnostic when considering call origination. Both services will co-exist, offering choices to Verizon customers.

Verizon Business Offers Carriers With IP-Only Networks Better Way to Complete Calls to Public Networks
Carrier IP Termination Transport Meets Demands of Growing VoIP Market

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The number of VoIP residential users in the United States is expected to reach over 40 million by 2010 (according to IDC, May 2006). That’s up from approximately 10 million people in 2005.

As the number of VoIP callers increase, Verizon Business is helping other carriers meet the demand with Carrier IP Termination Transport, the latest addition to the company’s wholesale voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) portfolio. Carrier IP Termination Transport carries VoIP calls between IP networks and the public telephone network. For carriers with IP-networks only, the new service has distinct advantages.

Carrier IP Termination Transport allows long-distance voice calls to be terminated around the world when the call originates as non-IP but is converted to IP. By connecting to the Verizon Business global network via Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), carriers with IP-based networks need not convert the IP call to time division multiplexing (TDM) for final routing to the public telephone network. As a result, callers can make calls to locations inside and outside the United States, leveraging the Verizon Business’ robust domestic and international network reach.

“As VoIP services become more and more mainstream, our wholesale customers are adding VoIP to serve their end-users,” said Jim Tyrrell, vice president for business voice products. “When you combine the Verizon Business global network with IP functionality and the low cost, you create a powerful combination to serve this market.”

Carrier IP Termination Transport joins the Verizon Business Wholesale VoIP product suite, which includes Carrier IP Termination SIP and SIP Gateway Services. The Carrier IP Termination SIP offering enables wholesale customers to economically terminate IP-originated calls to the public telephone network.

SIP Gateway Services are available in three service configurations.

• Inbound Complete – Verizon Business provides or can port an existing telephone number, which enables the end-user to receive calls from anyone who dials that number.
• Two-Way Local – Provides the same functionality as Inbound Complete plus enables outbound local calling including emergency calling support and access to local directory assistance and operator services.
• Two-Way Complete – Takes advantage of Verizon Business’ robust local and global network, allowing wholesale customers to offer competitive local and long-distance calling plans to their customers.

About Verizon Business
Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large business and government customers worldwide. Combining unsurpassed global network reach with advanced technology and professional service capabilities, Verizon Business delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. For more information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com.

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