Reach upgrades international voice network to IP

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 04 October 2005 17:52

Business IT - Networking

Reach, the Telstra/PCCW joint venture international carrier, and Asia's largest carrier of international voice traffic, has begun migrating its voice network to IP operation with the installation of Ericsson softswitches.

Reach will deploy Ericsson's telephony softswitch EIN 3.1s in the UK, the USA and Hong Kong and claims it will be the first carrier in the world to deploy this Ericsson technology with live traffic internationally.

According to reach CEO, Dr Beng Yeoh, the NGN will provide globally coordinated traffic management and improved customer interconnect arrangements, deliver material improvements in current operational costs and substantially reduce the capital required for future platform expansion.

The first softswitch, in the UK, has been installed and is now carrying customer traffic. Reach says the cutover was the culmination of months of planning and that traffic to and from around 100 carriers was migrated onto the new network in "a complex one night process".