Ameritech Offers Internet Telephony Services; ITXC to Terminate Voice over Internet Calls on Ameritech's Network - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Oct 18, 1999

ITXC Corp, a leading carrier of Internet telephony, and Ameritech announced that Ameritech will provide IP terminating service for Internet telephony calls carried over ITXC.net - ITXC's global Internet telephony network.

Ameritech's expertise in operational issues and network management of its in-region network -- combined with its relationships with other carriers out-of-region -- enables it to provide ITXC with high-quality termination throughout the United States. Ameritech also has the needed bandwidth in its territory to assure that latency and packet loss do not affect call quality.

Ameritech's carrier class termination service plus the Internet network management offered by ITXC with its patent pending routing technology, BestValue Routing, will provide international callers high quality Internet telephony calling to the Ameritech territory.

Noted telecom industry analyst Jeffrey Kagan commented on the relationship, "Ameritech has taken an important step into the new world of convergence by working with ITXC Corp. It sounds to me like a good match. ITXC operates the largest global Internet telephony network which gives Ameritech fast entry into this new industry, and in turn Ameritech will offer ITXC very high quality termination."

Ameritech will be joining other carriers such as Bell Atlantic, China Telecom, and Korea Telecom, who are also terminating calls received from ITXC.net. China Telecom, Japan Telecom and Korea Telecom are additionally originating Internet telephony calls using ITXC.net .

How It Works

Callers served by ITXC customers - carriers, prepaid calling card companies, call-back companies, and other reseller around the world - place their calls on standard telephones. These calls are routed to special computers called "gateways," which convert the calls from circuit-switched form to IP - the protocol of the Internet.

The gateway operator hands the calls off to ITXC for delivery to their destination.

ITXC's WWeXchange Service routes most calls over the public Internet. Calls destined for the Ameritech territory are routed to Ameritech for termination where the RBOC translates the calls back into circuit switched voice format and completes them over its network. Ameritech is paid to terminate calls routed to it by ITXC as it is paid to terminate long distance and international calls by traditional carriers.

Ameritech serves millions of customers in 50 states and 40 countries. Ameritech provides a full range of communications services, including local and long-distance telephone and data, cellular, directories, paging, security, cable TV, Internet and more.

One of the world's 100 largest companies, Ameritech (www.ameritech.com) has 70,000 employees, 1 million shareowners and $33 billion in assets.

ITXC Corp is a leading Internet telephony wholesale carrier. ITXC.net is the infrastructure for voice on the Internet with over 121 IP PoPs in 75 cities and 37 countries. Network affiliates include international carriers, ISPs, and newly formed Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs.) Key Affiliates include Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, China Telecom, GTS, and Korea Telecom among others.

ITXC sells international call completion and enhanced telephony services including international toll free calling to carriers, PTTs, and resellers. These services are routed over ITXC.net using the public Internet and ITXC's patent pending BestValue Routing technologies to assure quality. FMI: www.itxc.com.