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Global Crossing Enhances Carrier VoIP Local Services
- North American customers that are not fully SIP-enabled can connect via TDM interfaces to VoIP services.
- Offers North American customers local numbers for in-bound calls for seven European markets.
Florham Park, NJ - September 19, 2005 -- Broadening the scope and reach of its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, Global Crossing (NASDAQ: GLBC) today announced it has enhanced the Global Crossing Carrier VoIP Local Services™ offer for North American customers, enabling carriers to provide traditional Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) interconnections for legacy voice switches, as well as expanded reach to seven European countries.
These enhancements allow customers to realize the performance and economies of scale associated with Global Crossing's VoIP platform. In addition, carriers' North American customers that are not fully Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-enabled can connect and terminate all their calls through a single port connected to Global Crossing's IP core.
Also, beginning in October, Global Crossing will offer its North American customers Direct Inbound Dialed (DID) numbers for seven countries, including France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, to augment current service in North America and the United Kingdom.
"We support a fully interoperable voice infrastructure combining TDM and VoIP, providing our carrier customers a seamless migration path to an all IP environment on a timeline that meets their business needs," said Global Crossing's Anthony Christie, chief marketing officer. "VoIP Local Services provide the means for our carriers' customers -- including Fast-Track partners, enhanced service providers and other VoIP telephony providers -- to connect locally to Global Crossing in a traditional fashion without having to install VoIP equipment or make additional investments to their voice platform."
Global Crossing supports several access methods to connect to its VoIP service portfolio, including Global Crossing's Private IP VPN Service, Global Crossing Dedicated Internet Access, and standard public Internet access. For interconnection to its VoIP Local Service offering specifically, Global Crossing now supports standard TDM voice interface signaling such as SS7 signaling, Channel Associated Signal (CAS) and PRI signaling on ISDN. By offering TDM interfaces to its VoIP Local Services, Global Crossing lets organizations with traditional legacy voice services benefit from its IP-based services.
VoIP Local Services benefit established carriers in several ways. They eliminate dedicated physical connections and gateways to multiple markets and instead connects all markets over a single IP connection, thus increasing bandwidth efficiency. New wholesale voice providers can take advantage of Global Crossing's pure IP approach, allowing them to leverage their investment in VoIP technologies rather then purchasing TDM ports and incremental TDM-to-VoIP conversion equipment.
These services offer Global Crossing's customers a local presence in international markets where they do not have a physical point of presence. They provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional voice services by replacing traditional time division multiplexing (TDM) and private lines with a single IP connection.
VoIP Local Services also offer the ability to originate traffic on the public switched telephone network in different countries using geographic numbers. The traffic is then converted to VoIP on Global Crossing's network for delivery to the customer's IP network via a SIP interconnect. Numbers for Direct Dial Inbound, also known as Direct Inward Dial in North America, can be purchased from Global Crossing or can be ported from third-party providers to Global Crossing.
Security is another benefit of VoIP Local Services. Global Crossing has deployed session border controllers to provide secure interconnection points that logically separate Global Crossing's and customers' networks from each other. High performance is also guaranteed, because traffic is carried over the Global Crossing MPLS private backbone. This minimizes packet loss, jitter and latency to delivering the service quality necessary for voice and other real-time applications.
Global Crossing VoIP Local Services are part of Global Crossing's comprehensive wholesale VoIP services portfolio, which includes Global Crossing VoIP Outbound and Global Crossing VoIP Toll-Free Transport. Global Crossing was an early adopter of VoIP, having deployed its global VoIP platform more than four years ago. The VoIP network currently transports more than two billion minutes per month, and approximately 55 percent of all minutes in the second quarter of 2005 were VoIP.
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 300 cities and 30 countries worldwide, and delivers services to more than 500 major cities, 50 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 managed data and voice products including Global Crossing IP VPN Service, Global Crossing Managed Services and Global Crossing VoIP services, to more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500, as well as 700 carriers, mobile operators and ISPs.
Please visit www.globalcrossing.com for more information about Global Crossing.
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Statements made in this press release that state the company's intentions, beliefs, expectations, or predictions for the future are forward-looking statements. These statements contain words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," "will," "seek," or similar expressions. Such statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the statements, including the conditioning of the company's continued listing on the NASDAQ National Market on its timely filing with the SEC of all periodic reports for all reporting periods ending on or prior to September 30, 2005; the company's history of substantial operating losses and the fact that, in the near term, funds from operations will not satisfy cash requirements; legal and contractual restrictions on the payment of dividends and the inter-company transfer of funds by the company's subsidiaries, including restrictions under the senior secured notes indenture applicable to Global Crossing (UK) Telecommunications Limited ("GCUK"); the likelihood that the prices the company charges for its services will continue to decrease; the company's ability to continue to connect its network to incumbent carriers' networks or maintain Internet peering arrangements on favorable terms; the success of the company's business realignment plan and the realization of anticipated cost savings; the consequences of any inadvertent violation of the company's Network Security Agreement with the U.S. Government; the impact of actual and potential customers' bankruptcies on the company's sales prospects and results of operations; increased competition and pricing pressures resulting from technology advances and regulatory changes; competitive disadvantages relative to competitors with superior resources; the impact on the company's competitiveness of its technology choices; the company's dependence on third parties for many functions; political, legal and other risks due to the company's substantial international operations; risks arising out of the company's material weaknesses in internal controls and possible difficulties and delays in improving such controls; the concentration of GCUK's revenue in a limited number of customers, and the rights of such customers to terminate their contracts or to simply cease purchasing services thereunder; and other risks referenced from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no duty to update information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time.
CONTACT GLOBAL CROSSING:
Press Contacts
Tom Topalian
+ 1 973 937 0154
PR@globalcrossing.com
Kendra Langlie
Latin America
+ 1 305 808 5912
LatAmPR@globalcrossing.com
Mish Desmidt
Europe
+ 44 (0) 1256 732 866
EuropePR@globalcrossing.com
Analysts/Investors Contact
Laurinda Pang
+ 1 800 836 0342
glbc@globalcrossing.com
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