Level 3 announces new termination and toll-free services

Level 3 Communications launched new inbound and outbound VoIP services this week, announcing it is now terminating VoIP traffic internationally and has launched a VoIP-based toll-free service for domestic and international call center, conferencing and voice portal providers.

The new termination services greatly increase Level 3’s addressable market, allowing it to terminate calls in both the U.S. and internationally. Domestic customers won’t have to seek other carriers to handle their international traffic, and foreign carriers no longer have to meet Level 3 in New York or one of its other points of presence to accept internationally bound traffic, said Dennis Kyle, Level 3 vice president of voice transport services.

"We’re basically taking the exact same capabilities of our network domestically and extending them internationally," Kyle said. "Combined with our IP hand-off capabilities, that means lower infrastructure costs for our customers."

Being able to terminate calls both in and outside of the U.S. also opens up a whole new market segment for Level 3: the call center. As many call centers move abroad, Level 3 now can offer cheap VoIP transport, terminating in regions all over the world, Kyle said. And with its new VoIP toll-free services, Level 3 expects to land a significant share of call center and conferencing provider contracts.

Raindance Communications today became the first conferencing customer to sign onto the toll-free service, allowing it to integrate both its traditional voice conferencing services with its Web audio services.

The service establishes a toll-free presence on the PSTN, directing all dial-in traffic to Level 3’s gateways where it is converted to IP and redistributed through the carrier’s MPLS backbone, converted back to PSTN or remains packetized for IP voice applications. The platform also offers several network-based enhanced features. Instead of all participants dialing into a conference, the VoIP functionality allows a conference host to actively contact new participants instead of passively waiting for them to join.