VoIP Forum

While we were busy with our summer miniseries on the evolution of unified communications and convergence, we missed sharing a couple of product and service announcements in August that we will cover in the next several editions, starting with two new VoIP services launched by CenturyLink in seven states. 

CenturyLink, originally formed by the merger of CenturyTel and Embarq, is now the third-largest domestic telco in the United States behind AT&T and Verizon; it has grown this year by acquiring Qwest Communications and Savvis.

The latest additions to CenturyLink's portfolio includes hosted VoIP and a SIP trunking service being deployed to business customers in Florida, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. The services are delivered over CenturyLink's Tier 1 IP network, thus providing more inherent security and reliability than a VoIP service delivered over the public Internet. These products are also designed to combine voice and data on a single connection to simplify networks and create efficiencies by reducing the number of connections required for voice, long distance and data networking.

Commenting in a statement, Jeff Painting, CenturyLink vice president of business sales and care said, "We are pleased to offer our business customers VoIP services that deliver simplified and cost-effective communications solutions. The IP-enabled features available through our VoIP services, like unified messaging and mobile convergence, will help employees stay connected on the go while giving them the flexibility to manage these features right from their desktop."

As with other hosted VoIP services, CenturyLink manages the service and provides all future upgrades and maintenance, eliminating the need for customers to purchase or manage a premise-based PBX. IP-based call management features and online management are provided via Web-based portals. The service supports IP phones from Cisco, Astra or Polycom. CenturyLink SIP trunking converges voice and data traffic on a single connection, offering customers a choice to keep existing phone system and network infrastructure and to manage their own PBX.