CHICAGO, Aug. 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neutral Tandem, Inc., (Nasdaq:TNDM), a leading provider of global interconnection services, announces the launch of HD Voice Interconnect. Neutral Tandem's HD Voice service is a High Definition wideband voice interconnection solution for the competitive carrier market. Neutral Tandem solves the problem of non-interconnected 'islands of HD' by providing easy access to other HD carriers interconnected with Neutral Tandem, and adds incremental value to carrier investments in IP networks and Voice over IP (VoIP) services. The service has been successfully interconnected with 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq:EGHT), a provider of innovative communications and computing solutions, who announced its own ability to deliver HD Calling to business phone service subscribers in January 2010.
The service is aimed at providing carriers and service providers, poised to launch wideband calling services, the opportunity to efficiently route HD Voice calls between competitive carriers and hosted Voice Application Providers. HD Voice provides increased call clarity, meaning that conference call users can better understand other speakers and enhanced applications like IVR, speech recognition and transcription systems work with greater accuracy. The service requires a SIP interconnect that routes HD Voice across Neutral Tandem's network that is capable of terminating calls to over 550M telephony end points, and offers completion for any call regardless of whether the terminating party can terminate wideband voice.
"As a proven leader in offering HD interconnection solutions for service providers, Neutral Tandem's solution makes it easy for us to provide the enhanced audio fidelity required by our subscribers and completes the calls across its all-IP network," comments Bryan Martin, Chairman and CEO of 8x8. "They simplify the delivery of high-quality voice solutions end-to-end, and with their 'off-net' routing capabilities, there's no need to create multiple HD peering relationships or routing configurations with numerous carriers, they do it all."
Neutral Tandem's HD Voice service is readily accessible to any carrier with HD Voice traffic. It is unique in that it provides a bridge to connect between carriers and across markets. Furthermore, the solution does not require an ENUM registry, where numbers have to be uploaded by each carrier and 'dipped' at call set up. Due to the private nature of the service, customers simply route calls to Neutral Tandem and if the terminating carrier supports HD Voice, it is completed as such; otherwise, the call is completed on Neutral Tandem's extensive global voice network.
"We are excited to provide a comprehensive HD Voice solution to support carriers deploying wideband voice technology," comments Surendra Saboo, COO of Neutral Tandem. "We have designed our solution to be straightforward, without requiring complex routing tables or special number provisioning. We look forward to speaking with other carriers and service providers who are planning wideband voice deployments regarding testing and interconnecting to our HD voice service, to maximize the value for their customers."
Neutral Tandem's HD Voice solution is designed to provide the carrier market a broad High Definition footprint to terminate quality voice traffic to mobile and wireline carriers. The service offers improved quality and low latency voice termination across its entire private SIP-based network. HD Voice is a seamless service to Neutral Tandem's existing voice termination platform that manages over 11 billion minutes a month. To learn more about Neutral Tandem's products and services designed to help competitive carriers interconnect their networks, contact HDVoice@NeutralTandem.com or visit www.neutraltandem.com.
Cautions Concerning Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included in this press release regarding Neutral Tandem's strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenues, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. The words "anticipates," "believes," "expects," "estimates," "projects," "plans," "intends," "may," "will," "would," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in the forward‑looking statements Neutral Tandem makes. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to: risks associated with our ability to successfully develop and market HD voice services, including but not limited to identifying, obtaining, operating and maintaining attractive network switch sites, equipment, software and business support systems; our inability to interconnect with third parties or obtain necessary third party rights or permits on a timely basis, if at all; cost estimation errors or overruns; material delays or shortages; and other factors, many of which are beyond our control and all of which could delay or negatively affect our ability to offer HD voice services; and other important factors included in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly in the "Risk Factors" section of Neutral Tandem's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2010 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2011, as such Risk Factors may be updated from time to time in subsequent reports. Furthermore, such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.
About Neutral Tandem, Inc.
Headquartered in Chicago, Neutral Tandem, Inc. provides voice, data and video interconnection services worldwide. Neutral Tandem recently acquired Tinet, a global carrier exclusively committed to the IP Transit and Ethernet wholesale market. The acquisition combines Neutral Tandem's interconnection services for wireless, wireline, cable and broadband companies with Tinet's global IP backbone. Collectively, Neutral Tandem provides voice, IP Transit and Ethernet solutions to carriers, service providers, and content management firms worldwide. With over 100 Ethernet sites, the company is now the largest global Ethernet interconnection provider, a top 10 global IPv4 backbone provider and has a leading IPv6 network. Please visit Neutral Tandem's website at www.neutraltandem.com and follow us on Twitter@NeutralTandem.
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