MCI rushes into wholesale VoIP

At least three months ahead of its original plan, MCI launched a wholesale VoIP service this week that features both carrier IP termination and a SIP Gateway service. The service is called the MCI VoIP Enablement Service.

Announced in February with a fourth-quarter target date, MCI’s wholesale VoIP services will be aimed at existing wholesale customers as well as the burgeoning voice opportunity among Internet service providers.

“We continued to monitor the marketplace and interact with our [existing] customers, and we saw that the demand was there and that it was strong. So we changed priorities, if you will, and accelerated the rollout,” said Mike Yancey, director of wholesale voice product management.

MCI’s Carrier IP Termination product is aimed at customers with existing media gateway equipment and who convert an IP-originated call to a time division multiplexed (TDM) type call and hand it off to MCI for termination. The service is available throughout the U.S., and covers more than 54% of the business and residential market.

“The SIP Gateway service will be a true IP handoff to MCI’s network,” Yancey said.

Through its existing wholesale group, MCI will provide a dedicated VoIP sales team, including senior management, sales professionals, specialized engineering technical consultants, and program implementation personnel to help customers get into the VoIP market.

The VoIP Enablement Services leverage includes local service functionality, such as E-911, directory listings, and access to the line identification database. It also is compliant with current local number portability requirements. MCI has committed to investing more than $1 million in capital expenditures throughout 2005.

MCI has live customers using its VoIP wholesale services and though it hasn’t committed publicly to a particular solution for ensuring its customers are complaint with pending FCC requirements for E-911 for VoIP users, Yancey said, “We are looking to be fully compliant in November.”