Neutral Tandem Connects HD Voice

CHICAGO -- Neutral Tandem, Inc., (Nasdaq:TNDM), a leading provider of global interconnection services, announces the launch of HD Voice Interconnect. Neutral Tandem's HD Voice service is a High Definition wideband voice interconnection solution for the competitive carrier market. Neutral Tandem solves the problem of non-interconnected 'islands of HD' by providing easy access to other HD carriers interconnected with Neutral Tandem, and adds incremental value to carrier investments in IP networks and Voice over IP (VoIP) services. The service has been successfully interconnected with 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq:EGHT), a provider of innovative communications and computing solutions, who announced its own ability to deliver HD Calling to business phone service subscribers in January 2010.

The service is aimed at providing carriers and service providers, poised to launch wideband calling services, the opportunity to efficiently route HD Voice calls between competitive carriers and hosted Voice Application Providers. HD Voice provides increased call clarity, meaning that conference call users can better understand other speakers and enhanced applications like IVR, speech recognition and transcription systems work with greater accuracy. The service requires a SIP interconnect that routes HD Voice across Neutral Tandem's network that is capable of terminating calls to over 550M telephony end points, and offers completion for any call regardless of whether the terminating party can terminate wideband voice.

"As a proven leader in offering HD interconnection solutions for service providers, Neutral Tandem's solution makes it easy for us to provide the enhanced audio fidelity required by our subscribers and completes the calls across its all-IP network," comments Bryan Martin, Chairman and CEO of 8x8. "They simplify the delivery of high-quality voice solutions end-to-end, and with their 'off-net' routing capabilities, there's no need to create multiple HD peering relationships or routing configurations with numerous carriers, they do it all."

Neutral Tandem Inc. (Nasdaq: TNDM)