By Bruce Christian
On the opening day of the INCOMPAS show, NTT Com, ANPI and Telespire all showcased their growth and portfoio expansions.
NTT Com’s Innovation Helps Customers Grow
With a focus on new infrastructure, technology and customer service, NTT Com empowers communications service providers, CLECs, ISPs, network operators and Internet-centric businesses with cost-effective, reliable and flexible IP services.
The company operates one of the world’s most extensive Tier-1 wholesale IP networks, known as the Global IP Network. From Silicon Valley to Bangkok, from Luxembourg to Sao Paulo, it links more than 90 points-of-presence (PoPs) and data centers and is dedicated to getting customers’ videos, content and data where they need to go quickly and safely.
Pairing a state-of-the-art IP backbone that delivers high-quality transit with dedicated customer support has proven to be a winning formula for NTT Com. The company achieved a 99.63 percent customer retention rate among North American customers, far above industry standards.
It also has been named Best North American Wholesale Carrier at the Carrier Global Awards 2015 and Best Global Wholesale Operator at the World Communication Awards 2015.
According to independent research firm Dyn (formerly Renesys), NTT Com remains one of the top wholesale IP providers in the world and also in North America.
NTT Com consistently has focused on extending and improving its Global IP Network.
“Strengthening our IP backbone helps our customers enhance their own networks as well,” said Brent Duncan, vice president of Sales and Marketing for the NTT Communications Global IP Network at NTT America.
“By increasing performance overall and continuing to expand our content-rich IP network, we’re empowering companies to provide the best service possible and deliver an exceptional customer experience to their end users which we believe differentiates them from their competitors,” Duncan added.
Innovation is an important piece in NTT Com’s success. In addition to launching new 100G-enabled PoPs and upgrading submarine cables to 100G speeds, NTT Com has been a pioneer in IPv6, software-defined networking (SDN) and a number of green initiatives.
One of the first global carriers to transition from 1G to 10G, NTT Com has been offering 100G ports to customers for more than two years. In 2014, the company opened a PoP in Luxembourg built exclusively on 100G network links, the first 100G connected PoP anywhere in the NTT Com’s European network.
The company broke new ground when it became the first carrier to deploy 100G technologies on its PC-1 subsea cable system – a 13,000-mile network linking the United States and Japan. The move effectively bolstered capacity on the route by 2.5 times.
In another recent breakthrough, NTT Com completed a successful field trail of 400-Gbps optical signal transmission in an existing 100G-based optical network in Japan. This was achieved without affecting the existing 100G channels during the addition and removal of 400G channels in a 100-Gbps-based wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system.
This success is a step toward expanding the optical communication capacity by four times that of the currently installed 100G systems by using 400G advanced digital coherent optical transmission technologies.
This advancement will allow NTT Com to meet the rapidly increasing demand represented by the distribution of high definition 4K/8K movies, the Internet of Things and other killer apps in a timely manner.
NTT Com also has been setting the pace in the field of software-enabled connectivity, launching flexible and scalable networks in a fully automated SDN environment.
SDN technology has been at the core of the company’s global IP backbone for more than a decade, resulting in operations with higher quality of service, lower error rates and extensive network visibility.
For more information about NTT Com and its global IP services, go to www.us.ntt.net.
ANPI Connect Expands Direct Connections with PoPs
ANPI, a provider with a 20-year history of partnering with rural carriers, has made significant progress one year after launch.
ANPI Connect was launched before the 2015 Rural Telecom Industry Meeting & Expo and had already reached 30 end points. Since then, ANPI Connect has increased 366 percent, with 110 end points, and expects to grow to more than 200 by the end of the year.
“ANPI Connect has been a long-term vision of ANPI’s since I joined ANPI, and I am thrilled to see what a positive impact it has made,” said Randy Lemmo, ANPI executive vice president of Carrier Services.
“By working together to form one large network, carriers can connect to ANPI’s switching network and knock out many of the call quality, completion and billing issues they have been battling,” he said.
Previously known as VAP, ANPI Connect was developed to provide an answer to call quality and call completion issues that have plagued the ILEC community for years. The VAP initiative provides ILECs with the purest direct interconnection to destinations within the ANPI footprint and a network efficiency ratio above 98 percent.
ANPI Connect provides improved access billing as it is a trusted partner known for prompt payment. In addition, members have been reporting fewer trouble tickets, fewer moving parts and no longer a need to deal with the headaches of revenue conciliation.
ANPI offers a private label hosted unified communications solution for carriers and as direct connections, wholesale long distance, peering, tandem access and SS7 solutions.
Based in Springfield, Ill., ANPI began serving rural telecom companies in 1996, and today serves the voice and data needs of nearly 800 ILECs, CLECs, IXCs and regional wireless carriers, as well as more than a thousand business customers throughout the United States.
ANPI also owns and operates a nationwide IP network with switching and/or PoP facilities in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York City, and monitors all activity around-the-clock in its own network operations center.
For more information, go to www.anpi.com or call 877-366-2674.
Telispire Introduces Products Designed to Increase Customer Retention
Telispire announced the release of three new services, which will present customers more options and flexibility in managing their wireless devices while providing resellers the opportunity to increase revenue and improve customer satisfaction.
As a communications leader, Telispire continuously researches new technology and users’ needs, then develops and improves on products and services to meet those needs. The three new services are:
- Enhanced Device Level Alerting (DLA), an important management tool for users, this system will allow resellers to establish thresholds and end-user notifications related to high usage levels, plan expiration and contract expiration. DLA automates customer touch-points, increases customer satisfaction thus reducing churn and reseller overhead.
- Automated A/R (Dunning) Management enables Telispire to offer resellers a means to maintain a healthy A/R. The service establishes automated-customer notifications via email and/or text and automated treatment. These include suspending, hotlined and disconnect, which provides resellers the ability to mitigate risk and high write-off balances.
- Device upgrade solutions are proactive measures that have been developed to identify customers approaching contract expiration. Reporting and marketing solutions will identify these customers and then initiate communication to inform them of the latest offers available. Customer retention is increased when proactive steps are taken and competitive rates offered. Telispire has enhanced their device upgrade purchase flow to be contemporary, mobile-friendly and easy to use for Resellers and their end users.
“Within the fiercely competitive wireless industry, customer retention is paramount for a company to succeed and Telispire is committed to offering our resellers the products and services that will make them successful,” said Nicholas Aldi, Telispire’s CFO and COO. “We are excited about new opportunities to help resellers grow their revenue and retain their customers.”
Telispire is recognized as a leader in mobile virtual network operator services and supports post- and pre-pay services on the CDMA and GSM networks. It offers a complete turnkey solution for anyone wanting to enter the wireless marketplace with a low capital expenditure, a customized offering and a flexible back office system.
The company also boasts tier one around-the-clock customer care and a turnkey ecommerce including device fulfillment services.
For more information, visit booth 321 in the Expo Hall, go to www.telispire.com, call 940-397-9603 or email salesinfo@telispire.com
