PingTone Selects NexTone IntelliConnect System

NexTone Session Management Technology Supports Hosted IP Telephony Solutions for One of the Largest Business VoIP Service Providers in the U.S. 

May 23, 2007 (BusinessWire) — NexTone®, a leader in session border controllers and scalable solutions for VoIP, multimedia, and IMS network interconnects, today announced that PingTone Communications has deployed NexTone’s IntelliConnect™ System to support its hosted VoIP services in the United States. PingTone’s hosted Cisco IP phone system delivers the benefits of outsourcing to a variety of business customers in energy, healthcare, finance, technology, and U.S. federal government agencies. Features include unified messaging, branch office 4-digit dialing, and advanced call treatment functions. 

PingTone is experiencing strong growth in its hosted VoIP services and selected NexTone’s IntelliConnect System to increase the efficiency and scalability of its network. The IntelliConnect System includes NexTone’s Session Border Controller (SBC), Multiprotocol Session Exchange (MSX), and Real-Time Session Manager (RSM). NexTone’s SBC adds critical NAT and PAT traversal capabilities, which are essential to providing seamless deployments and business-grade quality VoIP calls for branch office and remote employees using PingTone’s services. 

The NexTone MSX, combined with its SBC, provides additional routing capabilities that allow PingTone to increase efficiency in call session routing, origination, and termination. Dynamic route hunting, unique to the NexTone MSX, allows service providers to dynamically route traffic to different carrier partners based on call completion rates, route profit, and route availability. PingTone can now more efficiently route VoIP traffic to preferred lines to ensure high-quality routes for each call and increased call completion rates.

NexTone’s RSM selected by PingTone is a dynamic policy manager which provides centralized QoS/SLA management and traffic engineering to PingTone’s IP network. The NexTone RSM provides richer reporting and statistics and greater visibility into a service provider’s network than traditional call detail records. The RSM gives PingTone both a business reporting dashboard, and a policy portal to view data exchanged for session initiation, session rate and duration, diagnostic information, and quality measurements. 

Additionally, PingTone network engineers recently completed advanced certified training courses at NexTone University in Gaithersburg, Maryland. NexTone offers its University courses as an extension of its customer support to provide training to network engineers in session management technology, VoIP, fixed mobile convergence, and other emerging IP-based applications.

Commentary

Robyn Smith, vice president of service operations for PingTone - "Quality is the most important aspect of PingTone’s business and it’s all about execution—we need the right equipment to make our network run efficiently. PingTone completed an exhaustive evaluation of vendors’ solutions and selected NexTone’s technology because of its reputation for high-quality products and service after the sale. We also don’t have to worry about scalabilty because NexTone can support a variety of VoIP services as we continue to rapidly expand our customer base."

John Longo, vice president of marketing for NexTone - “PingTone’s success in the hosted VoIP market underscores the trend of business customers away from traditional TDM voice to take full advantage of the benefits of VoIP. NexTone’s IntelliConnect System interoperates easily with PingTone’s infrastructure equipment and enabled the company to offer its core hosted VoIP services more efficiently. NexTone also allows PingTone to quickly and cost effectively introduce competitive new IP telephony services.

About Nextone

About PingTone