As companies continue to push for more efficient and effective interaction among employees, customers and partners, Verizon Business is now offering new IP capabilities that make the adoption of unified communications and collaboration simpler and more cost-effective than ever before.

The new capabilities, unveiled Wednesday (June 23) feature:

• IP Audio Conferencing for conducting instant meetings that will speed collaboration while eliminating additional per minute charges for calls originating from a Verizon IP-enabled location leveraging the company's expansive global IP network.
• VoIP IP Enterprise Routing (VIPER) – a new cloud-based VoIP feature that enables more cost-effective business-to-business voice calls by eliminating domestic or international per minute calling charges when calls are made between Verizon VoIP customers in either the U.S. and Europe that sign up for the VIPER feature. As an added benefit, a customer using Verizon IP Audio Conferencing will not incur additional per minute charges from any VIPER-enabled location dialing into the host conference bridge.
• Centralized multi-site designs for Verizon Hosted IP Centrex customers in Europe to aggregate calls through a central "hub" location connected to Verizon's expansive global IP network, including calls from sites in other countries, or using third-party wide area network access, or both. Multi-site customers also benefit from a new pricing structure between countries where Verizon offers VoIP.

These Verizon capabilities are compelling options for enterprises already using Verizon Private IP, VoIP or IP Toll-free contact center services as part of their overall UC&C strategy.

Simple and Cost-Effective Bridge to UC&C

Verizon IP Audio Conferencing enables customers to take advantage of their IP networks for conference calls, providing another access option to boost efficiencies and control costs. Audio conferencing is often a first step in a collaboration strategy, allowing organizations around the world to seamlessly bridge obstacles of time and space in today's global and highly distributed economy.

VIPER Makes VoIP B-to-B Friendly

VIPER, available to Verizon Business VoIP customers in the U.S. and Europe, enables customers to benefit from cost savings for business-to-business IP calling. The new capability is enabled in the Verizon network and does not require additional customer hardware or software. As Verizon Business is a major provider of IP Trunking and VoIP offerings with a large and rapidly growing customer base, the VIPER offer provides a significant savings opportunity for customers. The capability can be leveraged with any VIPER customer, automatically enrolling organizations in a user community.

Centralized Multi-Site Designs for Greater Efficiency

Hosted IP Centrex customers in Europe can now benefit from centralizing a hub in one European location and extending VoIP capabilities – including the enhanced features and benefits of UC&C – to multiple European office locations. The centralized multi-site, multi-country platform eliminates the need for in-country voice trunks and additional TDM/IP gateways and can support emergency calls from any of the remote locations. Also available with this capability is a new rate plan that allows calls between countries where Verizon VoIP is available to be billed at the domestic rate for the terminating country. Given that approximately 30 percent of calls made in Europe are between countries, this option can deliver significant savings for Verizon customers.