BT Boosts Its IP Exchange Platform With New Americas Hub

IRVING, Texas, Sept. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- BT has launched a major IP Exchange hub in the United States to manage rapidly growing network traffic over its IP Exchange platform.  BT IP Exchange is the wholesale service platform that enables communications providers to interconnect their networks for IP-based voice, data and signaling, ensuring true interoperability in the IP world.

Located in the U.S., the Americas hub connects the North and South America regions with the global BT IP Exchange network. It brings the functionality of the service closer to carriers, operators and their end customers' networks. This helps to lower the cost of voice and data transport and improves service quality by reducing interference.

The BT Global IP Exchange service platform enables traffic carried over a host of different communications networks to be seamlessly 'translated' from one to the other in an electronic 'IP clearing house'.  It enables IP network providers, fixed telecoms operators and mobile network operators from more than 170 countries to interconnect to each other.

In addition to terminating voice minutes, the platform can carry video and data traffic across a wide range of standards and configurations. It also supports fixed and mobile operators' signaling and exchange requirements to allow for interworking of services with quality, security and commercial sustainability.

Demand for BT IP Exchange services has grown rapidly since its global launch in 2011. In the UK and around the world, BT IP Exchange services now support more than 350 communications providers with around ten new ones added every month.

Beatriz Butsana-Sita, managing director, BT Global Telecom Markets, said: "The footprint of our global IP Exchange platform is growing rapidly. By serving our wholesale customers with the platform closer to home, we help to reduce their interconnection costs. The Americas node now joins the ones in Europe and Asia to offer our customers additional cost effective reach across the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean."

Steve Best, managing director of strategy, products and regulation at BT Wholesale, said, "IP Exchange is a major investment for the future of our customers' business, creating new opportunities for them to grow. Through BT IP Exchange, customers can take full advantage of high quality IP voice to thrive in rapidly advancing markets, integrating new multimedia services like High Definition voice and video across fixed and mobile networks around the world."   

BT is working on a number of developments to further expand the service, such as the ability to support 4G/LTE, Wi-Fi roaming, video codec interoperability and High Definition voice transcoding.

All news releases can be accessed at our web sites: http://www.globalservices.bt.com/us/en/news and http://www.btplc.com/news

About BT

BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2013, BT Group's reported revenue was £18,103m with reported profit before taxation of £2,315m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. 

For more information, visit www.btplc.com

SOURCE BT