P2P VoIP network traffic doubles

Traffic on the Voice Peering Fabric, a virtual network designed specifically for VoIP interconnections, had doubled since last year, according to its proprietors. Stealth Communications of New York, which launched the VPF four years ago, said the network has surpassed a run-rate of more than 200 billion minutes a year, up from 100 billion in October 2006.

The VPF is peer-to-peer Layer 2 Ethernet architecture for the secure exchange of VoIP traffic and wholesale trading of time and terminations. The system also encompasses VoIP phone number databases that allow carriers to bypass the public telephone network system and call each other directly, further reducing interconnection expenses. VPF traders include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Net2Phone, Packet8, VoIP Inc., RCN, AT&T Wholesale, China Telecom and others.

Arbinet, a similar VoIP peer exchange with offices based in New Brunswick, NJ, runs more than 12 billion minutes a year, according to its biolerplate [1]. The most recent addition to the pool of Arbinet users include ATSI Communications, a San Antonio, Texas, concern specializing in international VoIP connections. The increasing usage of the VPF supports recent prognostications by research firms that consumer VoIP adoption will grow by nearly 250 percent over the next four years.

For more:
- The Stealth announcement is available here [2]
- VPF 101 is here [3]
- A 2006 interview with Stealth President and CEO Shrihari Pandit is here [4]

Related Articles:
Consumer VoIP projected to hit 37 million by 2011 Article [5]