Equant Reports Surge in Demand for VoIP

Equant reported an 85% increase in the number of customer sites using VoIP from 700 to 1,300 over the last 12 months. More than 130 multinational corporations - more than 10% of all Equant IP VPN customers - are now using the company's VoIP VPN capabilities. Equant also announced a series of programs to spur further acceleration in the adoption of IP-based voice and video solutions by multinational corporations. These include:



Expanded global coverage: Following recent regulatory approval in 17 additional countries, Equant's Voice for IP VPN offering is available in 93 countries. Through partners, Equant offers VoIP access to emerging markets including China, India and Russia.



Multi-vendor approach: In April 2002, Equant launched an 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.



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%. Calls to the top 20 countries, which represent 90% of the world's traffic according to TeleGeography Research, were reduced by up to 50%. http://www.equant.com