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MCI Rolls Out Business VoIP in Europe

Reading, England (ots/PRNewswire)

- MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access Offers Customers an Easy
Migratory  Step Towards a Fully Converged Voice and Data Solution
MCI, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCIP) today announced that it has begun its
European roll-out of MCI Advantage, a portfolio of IP-based services
designed for companies wanting to converge their voice and data
networks. MCI Advantage, which includes networked voice over IP and
Hosted IP telephony, will be introduced throughout the next year. The
initial offering, MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access, is now
available in the UK and will soon be available in France, Germany and
the Netherlands.
With MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access, customers can capitalise
on the cost efficiency of IP telephony -- on-net calls are free and
integration provides access cost savings -- whilst using their
existing PABX. Other enhancements, including DSL access, hosted and
managed IP-PBX solutions, will follow later in 2005.
"MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access allows customers to evolve to
a converged networking solution whilst reducing expenses," said
Roberta Mackintosh, Senior Director of Product Management, Pricing
and Analysis for MCI in Europe. "With MCI Advantage we are able to
provide a portfolio of services that meet the evolving voice and data
needs of our customers."
MCI Advantage combines voice, multimedia and data across a single
IP link allowing customers to converge their telephony, data exchange
and messaging applications on a seamless network infrastructure. The
company has enabled its voice and Internet products for convergence
through implementing intelligent network-hosted Session Initiated
Protocol (SIP) capabilities and routing servers. (SIP is a
standards-based protocol for establishing and terminating media
sessions, e.g. for e-mail, streamed video and instant messaging, that
are controlled independently from the underlying network.)
"Gartner is finding that VoIP is continuing to gain momentum
because the technology has moved on sufficiently to make it an
affordable proposition for a business, with an easy to calculate
return on investment," said Neil Rickard, Research Vice President,
Gartner.
"The key elements needed to serve the enterprise market's initial
requirements for supporting voice applications in a converged
environment, are site-to-site Voice over IP (VoIP), site-to-public
(VoIP) and hosted and/or managed IP telephony," said Rickard. "Later
requirements will include hosted/managed contact centers and unified
communications. The first wave of applications is being deployed on
the basis of obvious cost savings, plus an increase in agility and
flexibility."
About MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access
MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access is a convergence solution
delivered via the company's Private IP service using Multi-Protocol
Label Switching (MPLS) or over an MCI Dedicated Internet Access
circuit. MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access has three feature
packages -- a base feature package, network voicemail and voice VPN.
The service is designed to allow customers an evolutionary step
towards a complete converged solution. It offers a fully managed
service that avoids customer capital expenditure because it is
implemented directly in the access and IP network. The traditional
customer PBX is kept in place, with MCI simply adding voice to the
existing IP Dedicated or PIP access network without the requirement
for PBX changes or LAN upgrades or end-user re-training.
Convergence
Convergence can increase the cost competitiveness of customers in
Europe by removing the inefficiencies generated by maintaining
multiple networks. IP Integrated Access offers call savings through
intra-company calls being migrated from the public switched telephone
network to the IP network, enabling free on-net voice calls. Another
savings feature is the MCI Advantage Club, where many calls over IP
to other MCI Advantage customers are also free.
In addition, MCI Advantage IP Integrated Access uses compression
to enable more efficient bandwidth requirements, allowing customers
to use an MCI IP access circuit for all calls. Instead of the 64kbps
typically required for a traditional voice call, MCI Advantage can
compress voice traffic to 28kbps per call, reducing recurring
bandwidth costs whilst maintaining business-grade voice quality.
Moving voice traffic onto an IP network also gives employees new ways
of communicating by enhancing functionality and in-turn increasing
corporate dexterity. MCI Advantage is a winner of numerous awards in
the US, including most recently Network Magazine's 2005 'Innovation
Award for Most Influential Technology' in data services, and has been
offered in the US for more than three years. It has been further
developed and trialed for the European market by fully integrating it
with local operational systems supporting specific country
requirements.
About MCI, Inc.
MCI, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCIP) is a leading global communications
provider, delivering innovative, cost-effective, advanced
communications connectivity to businesses, governments and consumers.
With one of the most expansive global IP backbones and wholly-owned
data networks, MCI develops the converged communications products and
services that are the foundation for commerce and communications in
today's market. For more information, go to http://www.mci.com.
Web site: http://www.mci.com

Contact:

Aislinn Ryan of MCI Europe Communications, +44-0-118-905-7114,
aislinn.ryan@uk.mci.com

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