AT&T expands the availability of AT&T Voice Over IP Connect Service (AVOICS). AVOICS is the flagship wholesale VoIP offer for U.S. service providers that want IP-based connectivity to AT&T's global IP network for long distance call termination. For more than 10 years, AT&T has provided wholesale VoIP solutions, which address the U.S. domestic and international termination needs of service providers with a variety of connectivity options.

AVOICS provides unbranded and unbundled transport over the AT&T network, as well as termination of international and U.S. domestic traffic. Customers connect to the service via AT&T's Managed Internet Service/Multiprotocol Label Switching-Private Network Transport service, which provides class-of-service voice quality, key security elements and advanced network reliability. AVOICS is highly scalable and accepts U.S.-originated domestic outbound (1+) calls and international outbound (011+) calls by using SIP signaling.

AT&T has expanded the scale and scope of its wholesale VoIP services, and is now offering AVOICS to customers that want the service with T1, T3 and OCX connectivity as well as meeting a market demand for a customer managed model. Initially introduced with limited availability, AVOICS is now available to all of AT&T's U.S.-based wholesale customers. The expansion of AVOICS specifically includes:

• Increased capacity in the VoIP network infrastructure to meet customer traffic demand -- Increased connectivity from T1 to T3 ... all the way to OC48
• Moving from an AT&T Managed Router Model to a Customer Managed Router Model to monitor the circuit -- Native and non-native IP traffic on the same circuit with unique IP signaling addresses

AT&T has had more than a decade of wholesale VoIP success already in large part through its pioneer offer, Global Hubbing IP Access (GHIA), which will continue to play a key role in providing service to operators that carry substantial volumes of international traffic. With GHIA, customers send their VoIP traffic to the AT&T network for VoIP termination. If no VoIP termination is available, a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) conversion is made to cost-effectively deliver calls over AT&T's highly reliable and secure network. AT&T also offers AT&T IP Toll-Free service to wholesale customers for use in their own large call centers, supporting their evolution to the contact center of the future.

AT&T's suite of wholesale VoIP services connects customers to one of the world's most advanced, secure and powerful global IP backbone networks, lessening the chance for disruption or delays. AT&T's VoIP customers are confident selling services that ride on AT&T's highly reliable network.