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INDUSTRIES
INDUSTRIES
March 13, 2008
By Rich Tehrani
President and Editor-in-Chief
VoIP Peering Leader XConnect Appoints Dr. Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom New Zealand, to its Board of Directors
By Rich Tehrani
President and Editor-in-Chief
XConnect (News - Alert) is one of the largest VoIP
peering providers in the world, connecting the networks of more than 400 operators in over 35 countries. The London-based company, whose network is powered by technology from Kayote Networks, offers a range of carrier solutions, from protocol interoperability, to ENUM directory services, to security and policy management. The company’s ENUM registry currently has over 800 million telephone numbers/ranges.
XConnect was founded in 2005 by Eli Katz (News - Alert), also co-founder and chairman of the UK’s Internet Telephony Service Providers’ Association. The company is backed by Tier 1 VCs including Venrock and Accel -- and was recently selected by the cable industry in the Netherlands to operate the world’s first nation-wide VoIP peering solution. In addition it recently acquired the European carrier ENUM exchange, e164.info and IPeerX.
peering providers in the world, connecting the networks of more than 400 operators in over 35 countries. The London-based company, whose network is powered by technology from Kayote Networks, offers a range of carrier solutions, from protocol interoperability, to ENUM directory services, to security and policy management. The company’s ENUM registry currently has over 800 million telephone numbers/ranges.XConnect was founded in 2005 by Eli Katz (News - Alert), also co-founder and chairman of the UK’s Internet Telephony Service Providers’ Association. The company is backed by Tier 1 VCs including Venrock and Accel -- and was recently selected by the cable industry in the Netherlands to operate the world’s first nation-wide VoIP peering solution. In addition it recently acquired the European carrier ENUM exchange, e164.info and IPeerX.
Recently, XConnect appointed Dr. Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom New Zealand, to its board of directors. Dr. Reynolds brings a wealth of experience to XConnect and his global and “carrier-grade” expertise will no doubt contribute significantly to the company’s future growth and success. Prior to becoming CEO of Telecom New Zealand, he served as CEO of British Telecom (BT (News - Alert)) Wholesale and was a BT board member from 2001 to 2007. While at BT he served as the principal leader of the $20 billion 21CN project, still underway, to build a state-of-the art all-IP network replacing the company’s PSTN
in the UK. His experience working on this project will no doubt make him an excellent source of expertise to XConnect’s leadership team as they develop advanced ENUM based peering federations around the world.Recently, I had the opportunity to do brief interviews with Dr. Reynolds and Eli Katz to find out more about how XConnect will be benefiting from Dr. Reynolds’ expertise and how the VoIP peering industry has been shaping up as of late. Here are some excerpts from the interviews:
RT: How do you think the addition of Dr. Paul Reynolds will help XConnect?
Eli Katz: His senior and global expertise on the evolution of Tier One operator’s IP Communications strategy and vision, combined with his high level experience in design and implementation, will make him a most valuable asset.
RT: Do you think customers will respond to this news?
Eli Katz: We believe Dr. Reynolds’ position on XConnect’s board will be received as a strong endorsement of the company’s approach to ENUM and Peering Federations by our growing list of PTT, MSO, CLEC
and Voice over Broadband clients. RT: How has the peering market been doing the past 12 months?
Eli Katz: There has been solid growth driven by the growth of industry-wide IP communication, NGN
and registry services, combined with increased IETF standards and vendor support. In addition, a number of federation consortiums for registry and/or signaling functions have recently been announced -- e.g. an ENUM based Registry (NRS) service for the GMSA, announced in Barcelona a few weeks ago, and the XConnect managed Brazil VoIP federation.At XConnect, we focus on delivering:
--Advanced Registry services (e.g. privacy enabled, multiple policy-based views of the data, global LNP data),
--Multi-protocol signaling capability (including Jabber/Jingle, for connectivity to the large Voice over Instant Messaging providers, e.g. GTalk, from Google);
--VoIP security solutions (e.g. SPIT & Vishing (News - Alert) detection and protection, Identity authentication and verification) and
--Systems/contractual support for both the existing commercial model (settlement based accounting) as well as the new commercial model of settlement-free (aka Bill&Keep) model.
This suite of IP Interconnection/peering enabling services, collectively termed “Federations Services,” are now much better understood by service providers and industry groups world-wide. Federations are increasingly understood to be an essential component of Next Generation Network strategies, with clear business and technical drivers.
RT: How close is the VoIP peering market to saturating the service provider space?
Eli Katz: The registry and federation players, such as XConnect, are fairly well established. Although, in terms of penetration, it is still the early days, and we anticipate many years to come of strong growth as service providers transition from legacy networking to VoIP services and intelligent ENUM based interconnects.
RT: How much of an emphasis will the enterprise/call center market have for XConnect going forward?
Eli Katz: As Enterprise IP Communications is beginning to gain significant traction; peering and federation services between Enterprises will become more attractive, especially for the new IP-enabled services such as video, IM, hi-def audio, presence etc. XConnect is focused today on Service Providers, but looking for ways we can apply our Federation technology and systems to enable new services for enterprise consortia.
RT: How does a slowing U.S. economy change your business outlook?
Eli Katz: In these increasingly competitive times for service providers, XConnect Federation services can help via:
a) Cost reduction, which federation services will provide, as these services enable optimised, scalable and efficient direct routing leading to elimination of unnecessary transit costs.
b) Revenue growth, which is likely to be driven by new IP-enabled services. End-to-end IP communication and mass interconnection between SPs, as delivered by federation services, is critical to enable the mass market adoption of these services, with the subsequent revenue and margin generation opportunities.
RT: Where do you want the company to be in five years?
Eli Katz: Maintaining our position as a world-leading provider of Federation-based IP interconnection services, including Registry, Signaling, Security and Commercial Management. We believe in five years our service provider clients will be fully utilizing Federation services, to enable a totally interconnected world for them and their customers, delivering all the new IP-IP services beyond the legacy POTS – (plain old telephone service).
RT: Thank you for your time.
RT: Dr. Reynolds, was it a difficult decision to join an IP communications company?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: Looking on a global basis, the evolution from the legacy to the all-IP communication world requires fundamental change for service providers networks (such as what we introduced at BT, with the $20 billion 21CN project, and more recently at TNZ), and also, a new paradigm for scalable direct NGN/IMS/VoIP/VoIM interconnection. I believe that the federation based model, is an essential component of the NGN enabling infrastructure, and that XConnect is a leader in this space. I feel that we have a shared vision and objectives for delivering the infrastructure for a new class of fully interconnected IP based multimedia services.
RT: What did you see in XConnect that enticed you to join?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: I see XConnect as a leading market innovator for ENUM Registry and VoIP/NGN Interconnection and peering services, with tier one VC-backing and a highly committed and experienced team delivering on a clear shared vision.
RT: How can you help the company?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: Strategic guidance from a Tier One Operator’s CEO perspective, my experiences running BT Wholesale and TNZ and sitting on the Boards of those organizations.
RT: When did you first hear of VoIP peering?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: I first began to think about VoIP Peering as a component of NGN strategy in 2004/5, when back at BT we were planning our new IP Communication strategy, which happened to be when XConnect was founded.
RT: How big of an opportunity do you think this market represents?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: The new federation based interconnection paradigm, is a radical and disruptive change, which is essential for all new and existing IP Communication Service Providers. This is a very significant opportunity.
RT: What is your biggest career accomplishment?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: Introduction of the world's first PTT scale, all-IP evolution project -- 21CN.
RT: Thank you for your time!
-----------
Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor in Chief at TMC (News - Alert). In addition he is the Chairman of the world’s best attended VoIP event, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.
This suite of IP Interconnection/peering enabling services, collectively termed “Federations Services,” are now much better understood by service providers and industry groups world-wide. Federations are increasingly understood to be an essential component of Next Generation Network strategies, with clear business and technical drivers.
RT: How close is the VoIP peering market to saturating the service provider space?
Eli Katz: The registry and federation players, such as XConnect, are fairly well established. Although, in terms of penetration, it is still the early days, and we anticipate many years to come of strong growth as service providers transition from legacy networking to VoIP services and intelligent ENUM based interconnects.
RT: How much of an emphasis will the enterprise/call center market have for XConnect going forward?
Eli Katz: As Enterprise IP Communications is beginning to gain significant traction; peering and federation services between Enterprises will become more attractive, especially for the new IP-enabled services such as video, IM, hi-def audio, presence etc. XConnect is focused today on Service Providers, but looking for ways we can apply our Federation technology and systems to enable new services for enterprise consortia.
RT: How does a slowing U.S. economy change your business outlook?
Eli Katz: In these increasingly competitive times for service providers, XConnect Federation services can help via:
a) Cost reduction, which federation services will provide, as these services enable optimised, scalable and efficient direct routing leading to elimination of unnecessary transit costs.
b) Revenue growth, which is likely to be driven by new IP-enabled services. End-to-end IP communication and mass interconnection between SPs, as delivered by federation services, is critical to enable the mass market adoption of these services, with the subsequent revenue and margin generation opportunities.
RT: Where do you want the company to be in five years?
Eli Katz: Maintaining our position as a world-leading provider of Federation-based IP interconnection services, including Registry, Signaling, Security and Commercial Management. We believe in five years our service provider clients will be fully utilizing Federation services, to enable a totally interconnected world for them and their customers, delivering all the new IP-IP services beyond the legacy POTS – (plain old telephone service).
RT: Thank you for your time.
RT: Dr. Reynolds, was it a difficult decision to join an IP communications company?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: Looking on a global basis, the evolution from the legacy to the all-IP communication world requires fundamental change for service providers networks (such as what we introduced at BT, with the $20 billion 21CN project, and more recently at TNZ), and also, a new paradigm for scalable direct NGN/IMS/VoIP/VoIM interconnection. I believe that the federation based model, is an essential component of the NGN enabling infrastructure, and that XConnect is a leader in this space. I feel that we have a shared vision and objectives for delivering the infrastructure for a new class of fully interconnected IP based multimedia services.
RT: What did you see in XConnect that enticed you to join?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: I see XConnect as a leading market innovator for ENUM Registry and VoIP/NGN Interconnection and peering services, with tier one VC-backing and a highly committed and experienced team delivering on a clear shared vision.
RT: How can you help the company?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: Strategic guidance from a Tier One Operator’s CEO perspective, my experiences running BT Wholesale and TNZ and sitting on the Boards of those organizations.
RT: When did you first hear of VoIP peering?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: I first began to think about VoIP Peering as a component of NGN strategy in 2004/5, when back at BT we were planning our new IP Communication strategy, which happened to be when XConnect was founded.
RT: How big of an opportunity do you think this market represents?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: The new federation based interconnection paradigm, is a radical and disruptive change, which is essential for all new and existing IP Communication Service Providers. This is a very significant opportunity.
RT: What is your biggest career accomplishment?
Dr. Paul Reynolds: Introduction of the world's first PTT scale, all-IP evolution project -- 21CN.
RT: Thank you for your time!
-----------
Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor in Chief at TMC (News - Alert). In addition he is the Chairman of the world’s best attended VoIP event, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.
