[July 16, 2007] Global Crossing Develops Unified Communication Solutions Based on Siemens Technology Tweet BASINGSTOKE, England, July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- - Global Crossing Unified Communications will give control back to the user, drive efficiency gains and deliver cost savings for UK Government departments. - UK Government breaks new ground with 'secure communications anywhere' solution that supports flexible working. UK Government departments soon will be able to achieve significantly increased efficiencies and cost savings following the launch of Global Crossing Unified Communications(tm), a new service announced today developed by Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GLBC) based on the HiPath 8000 softswitch from Siemens Enterprise Communications. Global Crossing Unified Communications(tm) provides customers with fully managed hosted IP Telephony, collaboration, and messaging solutions over a single, converged IP network designed to improve productivity, consolidate diverse systems, and maximize efficiencies. "With this initiative, Government is breaking new ground by adopting a uniquely flexible, 'secure communications anywhere' IP-based managed solution," confirms Anthony Christie, managing director, UK and Europe, Global Crossing. "By implementing this solution, they will contribute a key element to the HM Government's broader transformation goals, which include reducing infrastructure costs, by ensuring staff can work effectively as they deliver high-quality public services, wherever they are located." This service is one of the first deliverables of an agreement between the two companies that ultimately will create a range of hosted services based on Siemens' award-winning HiPath 8000 softswitch platform. The debut of the new service also complements Global Crossing's recent confirmation of the Managed Telephony Service (Mts) four-year contract extension delivered through OGCbuying.solutions. "The long standing partnership between Siemens and Global Crossing means the Government has the expertise behind the roll out of this new hosted secure telephony system, to lead the way in the creation of a completely flexible working environment," said David Leighton, sales director public sector, Siemens Enterprise Communications. "This strategy embodies Siemens' open communications strategy of simple and straightforward communications regardless of time, device or location. The open SIP platform provides unsurpassed scalability, flexibility and the highest level of security to meet the critical requirements of Government departments." Global Crossing's Unified Communications is available via a secure Government Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN). It provides voice services through a hosted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution that is designed to meet the high-level requirements of the criminal justice system and secure Central Government environments, such as HMRC and the Treasury. The company plans to develop a version of the service for multinational corporations. The hosted IP Telephony feature set of Unified Communications provides a number of major benefits to Government organisations, including charges calculated on a per-user basis, which help the customer avoid an up-front capital investment. This means operating costs will be significantly reduced and, at the same time, will be simpler to identify and control. Secondly, by embedding telephony, voice presence, data presence and a unified user interface within a hosted solution, Global Crossing can deliver the cost savings, operational efficiencies and service quality the Government requires. Finally, Unified Communications is a managed solution in which Global Crossing assumes responsibility for maintaining full operational effectiveness in line with any established service level agreements (SLAs). Government now can provide its employees the ability to access calls simply via a laptop, wherever they are located, enhancing an organisation's disaster recovery processes. The service also helps organisations implement solutions that contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. With a strong focus globally on environmental and 'green' issues, there is continuing pressure to -- among other things -- minimise CO2 emissions, so the ability of the hosted IP Telephony solution to support flexible home and other remote working solutions becomes even more critical. Together with collaboration solutions, such as video and Web conferencing, this solution will reduce the need for individuals to travel to meetings and for organisations to depend on costly Central London real-estate. The new initiative represents a significant investment in technology for Global Crossing UK and will take the company to the forefront of IP-based unified services. The first phase will deliver IP telephony services to the desktop, hosted from a highly resilient and secure carrier-class soft switch in Global Crossing's core network. The Siemens' HiPath 8000 softswitch platform utilises SIP standards and provides switching between SIP users, PSTN services, and legacy network users. The second phase will introduce presence-based features and collaboration tools that will drive productivity savings. The foundation of the Siemens HiPath 8000 and OpenScape allows government departments to seamlessly move to a secure, converged, open standards based environment at their own pace. Both the HiPath 8000 softswitch platform and OpenScape are based on secure open standards and integrate into existing IT infrastructure and business processes. Global Crossing UK Telecommunications Ltd. provides a full range of managed telecommunications services in a secure environment ideally suited for IP-based business applications. The company provides managed voice, data, Internet and e-commerce solutions to the strong and established commercial customer base, including more than 90 UK government departments under its other government framework contract, Managed Telecommunications Service (Mts), which serves more than 125,000 users. Global Crossing UK operates a high-capacity UK network comprised of 10,000 route kilometers of fiber-optic cable connecting 150 towns and cities and reaching within two kilometers of 64 percent of UK businesses. ABOUT GLOBAL CROSSING Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GLBC) provides telecommunications solutions over the world's first integrated global IP-based network. Its core network connects more than 320 cities in 31 countries worldwide, and delivers services to more than 600 cities in 60 countries and 6 continents around the globe. The company's global sales and support model matches the network footprint and, like the network, delivers a consistent customer experience worldwide. Global Crossing IP services are global in scale, linking the world's enterprises, governments and carriers with customers, employees and partners worldwide in a secure environment that is ideally suited for IP-based business applications, allowing e-commerce to thrive. The company offers a full range of data, voice and security products, to approximately 40 percent of the Fortune 500, as well as 700 carriers, mobile operators and ISPs. Its Professional Services and Managed Solutions provide VoIP, security and network consulting and management services to support its Global Crossing IP VPN service and Global Crossing VoIP services. Global Crossing was the first -- and remains the only -- global communications provider with IPv6 natively deployed in both its private and public backbone networks. Please visit www.globalcrossing.com or blogs.globalcrossing.com/ for more information about Global Crossing. ABOUT SIEMENS ENTERPRISE COMMUNICATIONS Siemens Enterprise Communications is one of the world's leading vendors of Open Communications solutions for enterprises of all sizes, enabling business processes to be more productive, faster and more secure - with any device, network or information technology infrastructure. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens AG with 15,000 employees globally and headquarters in Munich. Statements in this press release about expected future events and financial results are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially, including risks referenced from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Global Crossing undertakes no duty to update information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time. CONTACT GLOBAL CROSSING: Press Contacts Becky Yeamans +1-973-937-0155 [email protected] Kendra Langlie Latin America +1-305-808-5912 [email protected] Jo Graves Europe +44-(0)-1256-858-403 [email protected] Analysts/Investors Contact Gino Mathew +1-973-937-0133 [email protected] CONTACT SIEMENS Nick Head or Richard Fogg, at Companycare Communications +44-(0)-118-939-5900 [email protected] GEN/PR1 Web site: http://www.globalcrossing.com http://blogs.globalcrossing.com Global Crossing Press Contacts, Becky Yeamans, +1-973-937-0155, or [email protected], or Kendra Langlie, Latin America, +1-305-808-5912, or [email protected], or Jo Graves, Europe, + 44-(0)-1256-858-403, or [email protected], or Analysts-Investors Contact, Gino Mathew, +1-973-937-0133, or [email protected]; or For Siemens, Nick Head, or Richard Fogg, both of Companycare Communications, + 44-(0)-118-939-5900, or [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]