MCI Rolls Out Business VoIP in Europe
Reading, England (ots/PRNewswire)
- MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access Offers Customers an Easy Migratory Step Towards a Fully Converged Voice and Data Solution
MCI, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCIP) today announced that it has begun its European roll-out of MCI Advantage, a portfolio of IP-based services designed for companies wanting to converge their voice and data networks. MCI Advantage, which includes networked voice over IP and Hosted IP telephony, will be introduced throughout the next year. The initial offering, MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access, is now available in the UK and will soon be available in France, Germany and the Netherlands.
With MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access, customers can capitalise on the cost efficiency of IP telephony -- on-net calls are free and integration provides access cost savings -- whilst using their existing PABX. Other enhancements, including DSL access, hosted and managed IP-PBX solutions, will follow later in 2005.
"MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access allows customers to evolve to a converged networking solution whilst reducing expenses," said Roberta Mackintosh, Senior Director of Product Management, Pricing and Analysis for MCI in Europe. "With MCI Advantage we are able to provide a portfolio of services that meet the evolving voice and data needs of our customers."
MCI Advantage combines voice, multimedia and data across a single IP link allowing customers to converge their telephony, data exchange and messaging applications on a seamless network infrastructure. The company has enabled its voice and Internet products for convergence through implementing intelligent network-hosted Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) capabilities and routing servers. (SIP is a standards-based protocol for establishing and terminating media sessions, e.g. for e-mail, streamed video and instant messaging, that are controlled independently from the underlying network.)
"Gartner is finding that VoIP is continuing to gain momentum because the technology has moved on sufficiently to make it an affordable proposition for a business, with an easy to calculate return on investment," said Neil Rickard, Research Vice President, Gartner.
"The key elements needed to serve the enterprise market's initial requirements for supporting voice applications in a converged environment, are site-to-site Voice over IP (VoIP), site-to-public (VoIP) and hosted and/or managed IP telephony," said Rickard. "Later requirements will include hosted/managed contact centers and unified communications. The first wave of applications is being deployed on the basis of obvious cost savings, plus an increase in agility and flexibility."
About MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access
MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access is a convergence solution delivered via the company's Private IP service using Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) or over an MCI Dedicated Internet Access circuit. MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access has three feature packages -- a base feature package, network voicemail and voice VPN. The service is designed to allow customers an evolutionary step towards a complete converged solution. It offers a fully managed service that avoids customer capital expenditure because it is implemented directly in the access and IP network. The traditional customer PBX is kept in place, with MCI simply adding voice to the existing IP Dedicated or PIP access network without the requirement for PBX changes or LAN upgrades or end-user re-training.
Convergence
Convergence can increase the cost competitiveness of customers in Europe by removing the inefficiencies generated by maintaining multiple networks. IP Integrated Access offers call savings through intra-company calls being migrated from the public switched telephone network to the IP network, enabling free on-net voice calls. Another savings feature is the MCI Advantage Club, where many calls over IP to other MCI Advantage customers are also free.
In addition, MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access uses compression to enable more efficient bandwidth requirements, allowing customers to use an MCI IP access circuit for all calls. Instead of the 64kbps typically required for a traditional voice call, MCI Advantage can compress voice traffic to 28kbps per call, reducing recurring bandwidth costs whilst maintaining business-grade voice quality. Moving voice traffic onto an IP network also gives employees new ways of communicating by enhancing functionality and in-turn increasing corporate dexterity. MCI Advantage is a winner of numerous awards in the US, including most recently Network Magazine's 2005 'Innovation Award for Most Influential Technology' in data services, and has been offered in the US for more than three years. It has been further developed and trialed for the European market by fully integrating it with local operational systems supporting specific country requirements.
About MCI, Inc.
MCI, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCIP) is a leading global communications provider, delivering innovative, cost-effective, advanced communications connectivity to businesses, governments and consumers. With one of the most expansive global IP backbones and wholly-owned data networks, MCI develops the converged communications products and services that are the foundation for commerce and communications in today's market. For more information, go to http://www.mci.com.
Web site: http://www.mci.com
Contact:
Aislinn Ryan of MCI Europe Communications, +44-0-118-905-7114,
aislinn.ryan@uk.mci.com