XConnect adds new VoIP peering options

XConnect announced Wednesday a new set of enhancements for VoIP peering. Under XConnect's Global Alliance program, service providers can interconnect with partners they select under the settlement and policy terms they choose. Providers can connect to Global Alliance either via managed private or public IP.

New features added to XConnect include the ability to utilize policy control to create and manage federations, exchanging voice and multimedia traffic only with peering partners they select, with the ability to select either settlement or settlement-free options.

Global Alliance customers can now use a web portal to identify and select interconnection partners, as well as get access to real-time QoS details and advanced reporting.

There's also support for "-In" and "-Out" termination, where members can make money by receiving inbound traffic from the PSTN into their networks based on XConnect's ENUM registry (In) or terminate outbound VoIP traffic through XConnect based on a standard per-minute billing model (Out).

Finally, service providers have the option to extend subscribers' free calling options by peering with IM communities, such as Google Talk.

For more:
- Xconnect's release [1] on new VoIP peering features.