BT launches IP exchange platform

British Telecom (BT) has launched a major IP Exchange hub in the United States (US) 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 signalling, ensuring true interoperability in the IP world.

Located in the US, 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' signalling 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.

"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 US, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean," said Beatriz Butsana-Sita, managing director, BT Global Telecom Markets.

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.