By Alice Straight, TMCnet Web Editor

Phone (News - Alert).com is one of the U.S-based companies participating in a trial of the world's first IP-peering federation created for exchanging HD voice traffic.

The XConnect (News - Alert) trial, which launched earlier this month, is designed for the exchange of high-definition calls between networks using XConnect's secure and scalable carrier ENUM-based interconnection services.

'We are pleased to offer HD voice operators a simple and secure way to take advantage of the great potential this advanced service offers,' said XConnect CEO Eli Katz (News - Alert). 'The XConnect federation-based, all-IP Interconnect 2.0 platform is ideally suited for providing a scalable method for interconnection of HD and multimedia services on a cross-network basis. This will drive mass-market adoption and deliver increased usage, revenue and margin whilst reducing churn.'

HD voice is increasingly being adopted by service providers because it enables superior-quality voice communications compared with those supported by the legacy PSTN. HD voice reproduces human speech with substantially greater clarity, depth and nuance - making it much more similar to that of face-to-face conversations.

XConnect's trial will allow for global utilization of HD voice - when typically most HD voice service today is available only within a given operator's network - and will require cross-network calling, with the entire call path and all endpoints supporting the rich features.

Phone.com CEO Ari Rabban (News - Alert) said: 'We recognize the value of HD voice as a competitive edge for our services. For HD voice to really achieve its potential, it has to be available between networks, and the XConnect trial is ideally suited to help us and other service providers address that challenge,' said Ari Rabban, Phone.com's (News - Alert) CEO.

Operators joining the trial will participate in a peering community, called the HD Alliance, within XConnect's Global Alliance, which combines carrier ENUM-registry and multimedia IP interconnection hub services.

For more information on the trial, which remains open to qualified operators, please visit www.xconnect.net/hd-trial.