After the ITEXPO East 2013 Taqua-Broadsoft-IntelePeer (News - Alert) keynote panel today, I was able to catch up with Paul Nolin, IntelePeer’s director of Business Development for Network Peering. Nolin provided additional details on the costs (zip if already a customer) and workings of its federation efforts with Broadsoft.


IntelePeer’s Fluent Federation-as-a-Service (Um, guys, what else could it be other than a service?) enables service providers and contact centers to “connect globally and offer more value-added service” such as HD voice and video from end-to-end. Basically, it’s a structured and secure way to move SIP packets between carriers, helping to grow the universe of seamless HD voice and video usage.

Today, there are lots of HD voice “islands” among service providers and large enterprises, with calls moving around within the boundaries of entities. Moving SIP outside of those boundaries nearly always forces calls over to the PSTN due to security considerations, with IPX (IP Exchange) and federation efforts just starting to gain more traction over the past year. 

Service providers using a managed service to exchange SIP, be it IntelePeer’s Fluent or an IPX service like one offered by BT (News - Alert), can freely move HD voice and video calls directly. With HD voice on the increase and expected to accelerate with mobile service deployments, carriers now need to move SIP directly.

Part of the solution/announcement includes Broadsoft. Carriers using Broadsoft can directly exchange SIP calls over an IP connection or SIP trunk and this is works nicely if both carriers directly peer and can share directories of IP-enabled phone numbers – something that doesn’t happen a whole bunch.

IntelePeer’s Fluent service is a free (no monthly, no one-time sign-up fee), opt-in service for existing customers. Once enrolled, there’s a discovery/mapping process for the service provider’s IP enabled phone numbers to be rolled into IntelePeer’s global directory so when SIP calls (HD voice, video, whatever) are made, they end up staying all IP rather than touching the PSTN.

Nolin said there are “several dozen” service providers enrolled in Fluent with various service and interoperability testing taking place.  Service providers using Fluent win because they end up able to route HD voice and video calls to a much wider audience beyond their own networks and not having to pay extra to terminate calls on the PSTN.

Can IntelePeer make federation a success? I’m a little less skeptical after talking with Nolin, but there are factors I have to put in the “Con” column. There have been a number of past efforts to create federations at the enterprise and service provider level that haven’t gained widespread adoption. Larger Tier 1 carriers are pushing IPX services for intercarrier IP connections while Verizon (News - Alert) has its VIPER SIP cloud that could be leveraged to provide a federation-esque offering. 

Also looming is the AT&T-sponsored VCXC (Voice Communication Exchange Committee) pushing for a transition to all-IP networks and HD voice by June 15, 2018. More is better, but too many options cluttering the field could cause confusion among service providers.

For more on this topic and to visit with these companies, be sure to check out ITEXPO Miami 2013, taking place right now, Jan. 29- Feb 1 in Miami, Florida. ITEXPO (News - Alert) is the world’s premier IP communications event. For more information on ITEXPO, click here.




Edited by Stefania Viscusi