Leading Service Providers Collaborate to Create Cross-Platform, HD-to-HD IP Calling
Alteva, North America’s largest enterprise hosted VoIP provider, and SimpleSignal, a facilities-based complete network provider of business VoIP, today announced the successful completion of an IP peering relationship that will integrate disparate VoIP Service Providers to improve voice and video communications and allow advanced feature integration.
Currently, most calls are placed through the traditional PSTN controlled by legacy carriers, which defeats many of the current quality improvements available with High Definition (HD) IP communications. When VoIP service providers peer with each other, users on either network can connect directly over IP and bypass the PSTN. This allows the user to experience all the quality and features available through HD IP voice and video communications in a cross-platform call. The technology being used is an innovative and new approach of “fabric-based peering,” in which carriers can easily and reliably route communications based traffic between customers or end users regardless of who they use for their services.
Following this year’s CTO Summit, held at the VON Conference & Expo in Miami Beach, Florida, Alteva and SimpleSignal became the first VoIP Service Providers to take the dramatic step towards improving video communications and HD voice communications.
“The roadblock to enhanced communications services continues to be the limitations of the PSTN networks that interconnect all carriers,” said Mark Marquez, VP of Technology at Alteva. “Alteva believes that ‘a high tide raises all ships’. By working with SimpleSignal, we are able to provide end-to-end IP-based communications that allow for enhanced video conversations, as well as high-definition voice. We hope this will encourage other carriers to follow suit.”
“The SimpleSignal and Alteva alliance proves that HD voice and exceptional video quality can happen completely outside of the traditional PSTN,” said Ujjval Karihaloo, VP of Engineering at SimpleSignal. “By removing the barrier of the PSTN and peering with other service providers, IP communications can be all that it was created to be. Alteva and SimpleSignal users can now talk to each other using HD voice technology without any per minute charges.”
Some of the benefits of a nationwide IP peering fabric could include: nationwide HD-to-HD calling between different service providers, the ability to pass video from one carrier to another, and more overall cost-effective peering relationships for service providers and their customers.
“The recent growth in SIP trunking will quickly advance new IP-based communication applications like video conferencing,” said Seamus Hourihan, executive vice president of marketing and product management for Acme Packet. “Acme Packet’s Net-Net Session Border Controllers provide the foundation for service providers like Alteva and SimpleSignal to deliver trusted, first-class communications and offer new business tools to more effectively meet the needs of their enterprise customers.”
Alteva and SimpleSignal will demonstrate their peering relationship at Acme Packet’s Interconnect 2009 conference (November 8-11th) in Miami, Florida. The demonstration will include HD voice and video communication between Alteva and SimpleSignal, two of the leading hosted VoIP carriers in North America.
About Alteva
Alteva, North America’s largest provider of enterprise hosted VoIP, has become the pioneer for showcasing the high quality and reliability of hosted VoIP solutions. Alteva provides businesses with “Communication as a Service” that requires minimal installation and configuration while eliminating monthly phone system maintenance charges and reducing overall telephony costs. With a sophisticated open standards infrastructure, Alteva enables businesses to easily integrate existing business applications. Rather than building their processes around the limitations of their phone system, Alteva’s customers build their phone systems around their ideal processes. Based in Philadelphia, Alteva provides internet access, telephone system and service to growth-oriented businesses in 50 states and 14 countries.
About SimpleSignal
SimpleSignal is a Cloud-based, also known as Hosted PBX and Unified Communications service provider, in addition to offering SIP Trunking services, advanced Voice Apps , and Polycom IP Phone equipment. They have become one of the top Broadsoft switches in the United States, providing IP Phone apps and services to thousands of satisfied customers throughout the US and Canada, with a growing list of multi-office clients using the dependable service in many International locations. One of the key benefits of choosing SimpleSignal is their ability to dependably provision off-net, meaning customers can bring their own bandwidth and still use the SimpleSignal Hosted PBX system without going through the painful process of changing out their entire IP infrastructure.
