TMCnet News
XConnect to Acquire e164.info, The Carrier ENUM Exchange; Combined Company Creates World's Largest VoIP Peering Community With ENUM Registry of Phone Numbers of More Than 150 VoIP OperatorsLONDON --(Business Wire)-- May 16, 2006 -- XConnect, the world's largest provider of "Plug and Peer" Voice over IP (VoIP) peering services and operator of the XConnect Alliance, today announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire e164.info, the operator of the largest international private ENUM registry. The combination of XConnect and e164.info creates the largest and most feature-rich VoIP peering community worldwide. Founded in 2004, e164.info delivers the ENUM directory services required to facilitate network peering between VoIP operators. The 50 contracted members of e164.info, and an even larger number of prospective members currently trialing the service, have together provisioned over 123 million unique telephone numbers including both number block ranges and ported numbers into the ENUM registry. e164 members benefit from its advanced peering management which enables settlement free calls between members. "The combined XConnect and e164.info peering community is unmatched in scale or reach, and will allow our members to offer their end users rich multimedia IP-based communications services on a far wider basis than has been possible to date," said Eli Katz, CEO and Founder of XConnect. "Our sophisticated ENUM data management, interoperability and security features allow VoIP operators to interconnect to this community easily, securely and at low cost, and will further accelerate the growth of VoIP peering and of VoIP adoption worldwide." "XConnect is the ideal partner for e164, pairing our huge ENUM registry with XConnect's partners and network," said Thilo Salmon, Managing Director of e164.info, "Addressing the growing security, privacy and signaling interoperability challenges that face today's VoIP operators is fundamental to the success of our peering services. Our merger with XConnect serves our members' best interests by allowing us to address these challenges. Their recent success in winning the national Dutch peering federation for MSOs demonstrates the appeal of XConnect's multilateral approach and feature-rich peering capabilities." One driver of VoIP adoption by end-users has been the flat rate calling plans offered by many VoIP operators. Basic peering of VoIP operators can extend the meaning of "on-net" to incorporate other operators' subscribers regardless of location, but XConnect's approach to peering offers additional benefits to VoIP operators by facilitating privacy, authentication and identity services, as part of a suite of security features. In addition, XConnect addresses the multi-protocol interoperability challenges that exist between operators, and provides patent-pending security features including SPIT (Spam over internet Telephony) prevention. About XConnect Global Networks: XConnect is the world's first and largest provider of 'Plug and Peer' VoIP interconnection services dedicated to connecting VoIP operators and enabling rich multi-media end to end IP communication. Headquartered in London with offices and facilities in USA, Europe and Asia, XConnect is the largest neutral VoIP peering provider for VoIP operators. XConnect's award-winning solutions comprehensively address protocol interoperability, ENUM directory services, and security. XConnect provides peering services to 75 VoIP operators in more than 20 countries enabling IP calls between VoIP end-users. XConnect was recently selected by the cable industry in the Netherlands to operate the world's first nation-wide VoIP peering solution. XConnect was founded in 2004 by Eli Katz, also co-founder and chairman of the UK's Internet Telephony Service Providers' Association. For more information on XConnect, please visit www.xconnect.net. |
