Viatel attacks traditional voice market with VOIP portfolio offering companies up to 50% savings

Viatel to take VoIP into the mainstream by providing Businesses With a Carrier-Class Alternative to Traditional Voice

UK, Egham, 31st May - Viatel has launched a range of VoIP services that will enable companies both large and small to save up to 50% on their voice calls. These services take Viatel into the voice market place, positioning it as the first UK provider of truly converged IP voice and data services. Customers can choose from pay-as-you-go or flat rate price plans, and have the option to keep existing legacy PBX equipment as part of their VoIP service.

"The era of VoIP as a niche service for just the early adopters has ended. We're focused on taking market share from the traditional carriers who have held back the market in an attempt to protect their legacy voice revenues. Companies are not interested in VoIP because it's the latest technology, but because it can deliver significant savings," commented Roberto Bonanzinga, senior vice president, business development and marketing, Viatel.

To exploit the business benefits of VoIP, Viatel is launching 3 services - IP Voice, Hosted IP Voice and Voice IP VPN.

    * Viatel IP Voice is a trunking service that allows customers to save up to 50% on call charges while using an IP PBX or their legacy PBX equipment.

    * Hosted IP Voice is an IP Centrex service which provides companies with a fully outsourced telephony solution, complete with IP phones and "big company" features, such as unified messaging, for a flat 'per seat' fee of £10 per month.

      As well as the standard pay-as-you-go voice minutes option, customers can choose a flat rate of £6.50 per user, per month for up to 750 call minutes for local, national and international calls (including western Europe, Canada, the US and Australia).

      Hosted IP Voice is an ideal solution for customers looking to cut the costs associated with managing their telephony solution in house, and can deliver an initial saving of 20-30% within the first year of implementation.

    * Voice IP VPN allows companies to exchange voice and data communications between sites, remote and mobile workers, over a single IP network. Customers benefit from free internal calls between sites, and can mix and match IP PBX and hosted IP service options on a site-by-site basis.

Whether a company is a small single site organisation with low call usage; a medium size company with considerably higher call traffic or a multi site organisation with complex voice configuration needs, they will be able to realise significant cost savings through Viatel's services.

Companies will not only make savings on calls, but on the equipment, installation charges and on the administration benefits associated with a converged network. Viatel is partnering with Nortel* to provide carrier grade softswitch telephony and IP phones, this will enable the company to provide similar QoS and SLAs to traditional voice services.

"Providers such as Viatel are now delivering quality carrier grade VoIP to the market. We are delighted to be working with Viatel as we push VoIP into the mainstream," commented Darryl Edwards, President Northern Europe and Turkey, Nortel.

As well as the cost savings, easier administration and flexibility associated with the technology, VoIP facilitates remote working by allowing mobile and home workers to use the telephone number and features they have in the office, at any location using just an internet connection.

Research carried out by IDC among UK enterprises clearly demonstrates that companies are focused on reducing the cost of voice communications, as for 47% of those surveyed, the primary driver for VoIP is cost savings. Research by IDC also highlights that one of the top reasons for not implementing VoIP is due to concerns with voice quality.

*Nortel is a trademark of Nortel Networks.

About Viatel

Viatel is a pan-European business communications company operating across 6 European markets, including the UK, France and Germany. It has more than 10,000 business customers, providing them a range of business communication services that help companies of all sizes to access the internet, talk to each other, connect people and places, manage web applications and increase the security of their data. Headed by Lucy Woods, formerly CEO of WorldCom EMEA and BT Northern Ireland, the company employs 200 people throughout Western Europe.

For further information on Viatel, please visit:

www.viatel.com

For further information please call:

Ana Williams on +44 (0)207 357 8612

Or email ana@sparkcomms.co.uk

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