Global Crossing in the Media:
networkworld.com
What you need to know about VoIP peering
By Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World, 10/10/06
As companies install VoIP systems, they’re looking for ways to keep more of their voice traffic on IP networks to avoid the toll charges associated with the Public Switched Telephone Network. VoIP peering among carriers promises to make end-to-end VoIP calls a reality.
The VoIP peering market is still in its infancy, with carriers testing third-party services and joining exchanges to handle voice peering. In the United States, VoIP peering services for carriers are available from NeuStar, Stealth Communications, Switch and Data, and Tello.
Carriers are starting to offer end-to-end VoIP services to their corporate customers that take advantage of peering. Global Crossing announced in September that it was peering with VoIP service provider SunRocket. Global Crossing plans to sign other VoIP peering deals during the next year.
For corporate network managers, VoIP peering is promising, but it is still a year or more away from reality. That’s because none of the top-tier carriers in the United States, including AT&T or Verizon Business, offer VoIP peering.
“The numbers being thrown around in the industry are that only 2% to 4% of all VoIP traffic goes through a peering service,” says Mario Galvez, vice president of marketing for Switch and Data, which in June announced VoIP peering exchange services for carriers. “We’re going to see greater cost reductions in the future as the ratio of VoIP peering calls increases.”
VoIP peering refers to relationships between carriers in which they agree to exchange VoIP traffic to keep it on IP backbones instead of the PSTN. By keeping voice traffic on IP networks, carriers can lower costs, improve call quality and offer new IP-enabled services to their enterprise customers.
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While Freedom Health Systems takes advantage of VoIP peering through an exchange, Global Crossing prefers bilateral agreements with carriers such as SunRocket.
“That was our first bilateral agreement, but we have others in the works,” says Pat Reilly, Global Crossing’s senior product development manager for VoIP services. “Most of these conversations will happen in the next six months. Probably, within 18 months we’ll be done.”
Global Crossing isn’t joining VoIP peering exchanges yet, but it is cooperating with the Voice Peering Fabric. This arrangement was announced last week.
“We’ve joined the carrier alliance to provide data access to the different Voice Peering Fabric points,” Reilly explained. “We’ve got this global MPLS network. If any of our customers want to reach the Voice Peering Fabric, we can provide that connectivity.”
Global Crossing has been aggressive in VoIP peering. In June, the company announced Enterprise VoIP Community Peering, which means the company will not charge for calls when its enterprise customers of VoIP outbound services are calling customers of its VoIP local services.
“We have dozens of companies using these two services,” Reilly says. “They’re mostly multinational corporations deploying IP PBXes in their own premises or hybrid PBXes or VoIP-enabled routers. Many are starting with their call center facilities.”
Reilly says this service, which involves a small share of its traffic, saves customers around a penny and a half per minute for VoIP calls.
“Lots of folks are talking about VoIP peering, but we are trying to stand up and move this all forward,” Reilly says. “One of the reasons is that by eliminating access charges we can provide savings to our enterprise and service provider customers. But really we’re also trying to drive up the number of IP end-to-end calls.”
VoIP peering isn’t that useful to enterprises until it reaches a critical mass and most carriers participate. How long that will take is unknown.
“It’s very, very early in VoIP peering,” Galvez says. “It’s going to be slow in developing when it comes to the larger providers because lots of this is still being driven by regulatory issues. At the end of the day it’s about dollars. As long as there is still a financial benefit for local exchange companies to terminate voice traffic on the PSTN, they are not going to participating in peering.”
Galvez predicts that it will be two or more years before VoIP peering reaches a critical mass for enterprise customers to see dramatic cost savings.
“When talking to their service providers, corporate network managers should be asking about their philosophy about peering,” Galvez says. “They should ask about how much of their traffic is being terminated on-net through their network or through a peering partner. And they should ask about how that is translating to true cost-savings.” |
