The advent of SIP and ENUM technologies has led to the proliferation of VoIP based communications. With the promise of significant cost advantages, improved quality and the opportunity to deploy revenue rich advanced multimedia services, the benefits of VoIP communications are clear.

Today, the benefits of VoIP communications are usually limited to within the service providers own network. In the vast majority of cases, calls that need to go between networks are still reliant on the PSTN interconnect infrastructure which means traditional transit and termination cost structures are imposed and new IP based services cannot be supported.

Service providers require a secure and scalable interconnection solution that will facilitate seamless interoperability, routing and interworking between multiple next generation IP networks to address the challenges of:

• Discovering accurate call routing and addressing information including number portability corrected data

• Ensuring calls are routed as 'IP all the way' between networks to preserve call quality and exploit the revenue potential of new multimedia services

• Creating and managing multiple interconnect agreements from interoperability testing to peering policy management and enforcement.

• Negotiating commercial agreements and settlement rates between interconnected networks

• Ensuring network security across multiple interconnection partners

XConnect's Interconnect 2.0 service portfolio resolves the challenges faced by service providers through secure, neutral and trusted Carrier ENUM and multimedia interconnection services that facilitate seamless interworking and interoperability between multiple IP networks.