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  • Leading Technology Companies Announce HD Voice Initiative in the U.K.

    XConnect, Polycom, BroadSoft and Dialogic announced an initiative to promote the adoption of high-definition voice by service providers in the United Kingdom.

    Through workshops and cooperative communication and marketing, the HD initiative is designed to raise awareness and educate service providers about the benefits of HD voice and help them resolve implementation challenges.

    As part of the initiative, XConnect announced that the XConnect Global HD Voice Federation is now open to HD voice-enabled service providers globally, following its successful launch in the United States.

    First to join from the U.K. are service providers Simwood, SureVoIP and thevoicefactory.

    The federation enables the exchange of HD voice calls among all participants, all interconnecting through XConnect’s carrier hub and routing through phone-number lookups via its carrier ENUM registry.

    The companies joining XConnect in the initiative are market leaders in their sectors of the HD voice ecosystem. Polycom set an early stake in the ground through its SoundStation IP conference phones and SoundPoint desktop phones featuring Polycom HD Voice technology. BroadSoft is the leading global provider of IP-based communications services to the telecommunications industry. Dialogic is a prominent provider of multimedia and signaling technologies and platforms.

    HD voice enables users to experience clearer, higher-quality and more effective voice communication through the use of wideband codecs on IP networks. However, in most cases, to benefit from improved sound quality, callers must be on the same network. XConnect says they have established the HD federation to allow cross-network support for HD voice and potentially for multimedia IP-based services, such as presence and video.

    “The U.K. is ripe for HD voice due to increasing migration to IP and the quest among service providers to differentiate their offerings and deliver greater value to their customers,” said XConnect CEO Eli Katz.

    He added, “We are delighted to have facilitated the world’s first cross-network international HD voice calls via a federation – a step that paves the way for global mass-market adoption of HD voice.”

    Explaining why his company has joined the HD federation, thevoicefactory CEO Martin Sims said: “We realise that to compete effectively where broadband is a given, we have to move ahead of the pack. In a business market where many different languages and accents are the norm, high-definition voice will help us add value to our services.”

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    XConnect Offers Trial of High-Definition Calling

  • XConnect Offers Trial of High-Definition Calling

    XConnect announced a trial of the first IP peering federation specifically for service providers capable of offering high-definition voice services.

    The trial, open to qualified operators, waives sign-up and monthly fees for its April-June duration. “Multiple providers using the G.722 wideband codec will be able to test the interoperability, scalable interconnection, reliability and support of XConnect federation services,” says the company.

    High-definition voice is being adopted increasingly by fixed, mobile and Web 2.0 telecom service providers, as it delivers a much richer audio experience than the PSTN makes possible.

    Using wideband codecs, HD achieves a wider frequency range, providing almost the clarity of face-to-face conversation.

    However, for HD to work across networks, the entire call path and endpoints themselves must support high definition. According to Eli Katz, XConnect CEO, the mass-market adoption of high-definition voice and other new IP services demands “trusted, scalable cross-network interconnection.”

    “Service providers are eager for a solution. We look forward to working with the industry to help bring the benefits of HD voice to these operators and the consumer and enterprise markets they serve,” he said.

    Jeff Rodman, Polycom co-founder and CTO, said, “Because voice is the most critical way that we communicate, the significantly improved sound quality of HD voice is an important step in making communication clearer and more effective.”

    Trial participants will form a private peering community under the Private Alliance feature of XConnect’s Global Alliance, which combines ENUM-registry and multimedia interconnection hub services. Supporting multiple protocols and codecs, the Global Alliance enables new IP services, including HD voice, to be delivered across networks.