Equant reports surge in demand for VoIP among multinational corporations
Announcement posted by Equant 02 Jun 2004
Announces initiatives to ease adoption of IP-based voice and video solutions as market approaches maturity
Equant (NYSE: ENT) (Euronext Paris: EQU) has reported an 85 percent increase in the number of customer sites using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) from 700 to 1,300 over the last 12 months.
More than 130 multinational corporations more than 10 percent of all Equant IP VPN customers now benefit from the full scope of voice, video, contact centre and convergence services on a private, secure network by using Equants VoIP solution, Equant Voice for IP VPN. This number shows growth of nearly 50 percent over the last 12 months and gives Equant one of the largest VoIP multinational customer bases in the industry.
This growth also reinforces the strategy announcement earlier this year in which Equant identified IP-based voice solutions as a major market opportunity.
Equant is implementing a series of programs to spur further acceleration in the adoption of IP-based voice and video solutions by multinational corporations. In parallel to these new initiatives from Equant, France Telecom is announcing today plug-and-play and customised end-to-end convergent services for the French corporate market. This full set of domestic and international IP-based voice solutions underlines the France Telecom Groups clear objective to be a key player in this market.
The initiatives announced by Equant are as follows:
Expanded global coverage
Following recent regulatory approval in 17 additional countries, Equants Voice for IPVPN offering is available in 93 countries nearly double the geographic coverage of its nearest competitor. Through a strong partnership approach, Equant offers VoIP access to the fastest-growing emerging markets in the world including China, India and Russia.
Multi-vendor approach
In April 2002, Equant launched the industrys first end-to-end IP-based voice solution based on Cisco IP PBX technology. In Q3 of this year, Equant plans to extend its portfolio to support Avaya and Nortel Networks IP telephony equipment to fully meet customers requirements for equipment provider flexibility.
Price Reductions
Calls between corporate locations or on-net are free of usage charges. For calls to sites outside the corporation, or off-net, Equant lowered rates around the world by an average of 30 percent. Calls to the top 20 countries, which represent 90 percent of the worlds traffic according to TeleGeography Research, were reduced by up to 50 percent.
Equant will assist customers with IP-based voice solution design, deployment and transition management by supporting both traditional PBXs and IP PBXs. This will allow customers to protect their investments, while migrating at their own pace. At the same time, Equant will continue to provide fully integrated circuit-switched and IP-based voice solutions.
Gunter Hagendorf, director of global telecommunications and networks at JT International, said: When choosing Equant as our global telecom infrastructure outsourcing partner, Equants converged IP voice solution was an important part of the equation. We are using Voice for IP VPN and LAN IP telephony, contact centers as well as fixed and mobile voice services from Equant in order to gain cost savings and efficiencies. Additionally, the voice quality for Equant Voice for IP VPN was judged by JTI as excellent.
In addition to JT International, Equant Voice for IP VPN customers include: APL/APLLogistics, Behr GmbH & Co. KG, DuPont Brazil, European Space Agency, STMicroelectronics, ZDF, Zurich Financial Services and Gardner Smith in Australia.
As IP voice begins to move from pilot phase to wide-scale production, enterprises will require the same level of service theyve come to expect in a switched-voice world, according to Bryan Van Dussen, director, Yankee Group. Expectations will quickly go beyond toll bypass and focus on private network voice VPN services, such as corporate dialing plans, least cost routing or forced on-net. Equant led the industry with the first VoIP VPN service in February 2000, delivering extensive private network features in an IP world, along with end-to-end LAN IP telephony support. The results speak for themselves as over 130 multinational customers have embraced the service.
Equant is also seeing higher demand for its IP video solution from customers that have already successfully deployed an IP-based voice solution.
We are seeing the VoIP market for MNCs approach maturity now, which marks the move from hype to market acceptance, said Richard Knott, Managing Director, Equant Australasia. This milestone is important to customers because they can be assured that the technology has reached maturity and can provide them a stable, significantly lower-cost voice solution. Equants comprehensive range of voice and video services provides a truly one-stop-shop alternative that can be deployed globally and managed centrally.
About Equant
Equant (NYSE: ENT) (Euronext Paris: EQU) is a recognised industry leader in global communications services for multinational businesses. Equant combines its network expertise including unmatched seamless network reach in 220 countries and territories and local support in approximately 165 countries with its expanded services capabilities to provide global, integrated and customised communication services to enable its customers key business processes. Equant serves thousands of the worlds top companies, with the industrys most extensive portfolio of communications services and network solutions, including the market-leading IP VPN used more than 1,200 global businesses as of March31, 2004. Equant, a subsidiary of France Telecom, was named Best Global Carrier 2003 and Best Managed Service 2003 at the World Communication Awards and consistently leads industry surveys in corporate user satisfaction.
This release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Equant that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future results or events. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Equant with the SEC, specifically the most recent filing on Form 20-F, which identifies important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including, among other things, risks relating to our history of operating losses, the unpredictability of growth in our industry, the fact that the interests of France Telecom, our largest shareholder, may differ from the interests of our other shareholders, changing technology, uncertain and changing regulatory restrictions, currency fluctuations, dependence on suppliers, network security issues, intense competition, in our industry, and volatility of our stock price. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Equant on the date hereof, and Equant assumes no obligation to update such statements.
More than 130 multinational corporations more than 10 percent of all Equant IP VPN customers now benefit from the full scope of voice, video, contact centre and convergence services on a private, secure network by using Equants VoIP solution, Equant Voice for IP VPN. This number shows growth of nearly 50 percent over the last 12 months and gives Equant one of the largest VoIP multinational customer bases in the industry.
This growth also reinforces the strategy announcement earlier this year in which Equant identified IP-based voice solutions as a major market opportunity.
Equant is implementing a series of programs to spur further acceleration in the adoption of IP-based voice and video solutions by multinational corporations. In parallel to these new initiatives from Equant, France Telecom is announcing today plug-and-play and customised end-to-end convergent services for the French corporate market. This full set of domestic and international IP-based voice solutions underlines the France Telecom Groups clear objective to be a key player in this market.
The initiatives announced by Equant are as follows:
Expanded global coverage
Following recent regulatory approval in 17 additional countries, Equants Voice for IPVPN offering is available in 93 countries nearly double the geographic coverage of its nearest competitor. Through a strong partnership approach, Equant offers VoIP access to the fastest-growing emerging markets in the world including China, India and Russia.
Multi-vendor approach
In April 2002, Equant launched the industrys first end-to-end IP-based voice solution based on Cisco IP PBX technology. In Q3 of this year, Equant plans to extend its portfolio to support Avaya and Nortel Networks IP telephony equipment to fully meet customers requirements for equipment provider flexibility.
Price Reductions
Calls between corporate locations or on-net are free of usage charges. For calls to sites outside the corporation, or off-net, Equant lowered rates around the world by an average of 30 percent. Calls to the top 20 countries, which represent 90 percent of the worlds traffic according to TeleGeography Research, were reduced by up to 50 percent.
Equant will assist customers with IP-based voice solution design, deployment and transition management by supporting both traditional PBXs and IP PBXs. This will allow customers to protect their investments, while migrating at their own pace. At the same time, Equant will continue to provide fully integrated circuit-switched and IP-based voice solutions.
Gunter Hagendorf, director of global telecommunications and networks at JT International, said: When choosing Equant as our global telecom infrastructure outsourcing partner, Equants converged IP voice solution was an important part of the equation. We are using Voice for IP VPN and LAN IP telephony, contact centers as well as fixed and mobile voice services from Equant in order to gain cost savings and efficiencies. Additionally, the voice quality for Equant Voice for IP VPN was judged by JTI as excellent.
In addition to JT International, Equant Voice for IP VPN customers include: APL/APLLogistics, Behr GmbH & Co. KG, DuPont Brazil, European Space Agency, STMicroelectronics, ZDF, Zurich Financial Services and Gardner Smith in Australia.
As IP voice begins to move from pilot phase to wide-scale production, enterprises will require the same level of service theyve come to expect in a switched-voice world, according to Bryan Van Dussen, director, Yankee Group. Expectations will quickly go beyond toll bypass and focus on private network voice VPN services, such as corporate dialing plans, least cost routing or forced on-net. Equant led the industry with the first VoIP VPN service in February 2000, delivering extensive private network features in an IP world, along with end-to-end LAN IP telephony support. The results speak for themselves as over 130 multinational customers have embraced the service.
Equant is also seeing higher demand for its IP video solution from customers that have already successfully deployed an IP-based voice solution.
We are seeing the VoIP market for MNCs approach maturity now, which marks the move from hype to market acceptance, said Richard Knott, Managing Director, Equant Australasia. This milestone is important to customers because they can be assured that the technology has reached maturity and can provide them a stable, significantly lower-cost voice solution. Equants comprehensive range of voice and video services provides a truly one-stop-shop alternative that can be deployed globally and managed centrally.
About Equant
Equant (NYSE: ENT) (Euronext Paris: EQU) is a recognised industry leader in global communications services for multinational businesses. Equant combines its network expertise including unmatched seamless network reach in 220 countries and territories and local support in approximately 165 countries with its expanded services capabilities to provide global, integrated and customised communication services to enable its customers key business processes. Equant serves thousands of the worlds top companies, with the industrys most extensive portfolio of communications services and network solutions, including the market-leading IP VPN used more than 1,200 global businesses as of March31, 2004. Equant, a subsidiary of France Telecom, was named Best Global Carrier 2003 and Best Managed Service 2003 at the World Communication Awards and consistently leads industry surveys in corporate user satisfaction.
This release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Equant that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future results or events. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Equant with the SEC, specifically the most recent filing on Form 20-F, which identifies important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including, among other things, risks relating to our history of operating losses, the unpredictability of growth in our industry, the fact that the interests of France Telecom, our largest shareholder, may differ from the interests of our other shareholders, changing technology, uncertain and changing regulatory restrictions, currency fluctuations, dependence on suppliers, network security issues, intense competition, in our industry, and volatility of our stock price. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Equant on the date hereof, and Equant assumes no obligation to update such statements.