Siemens Migrates UK Govt to IP Telephony

MUNICH -- Siemens Information and Communication Networks (ICN) will supply the enter¬prise infrastructure to transform one of Europe’s largest privately managed net¬works to support IP telephony. Siemens’ contract, awarded by Global Crossing, a global telecommunication solutions provider, involves upgrading the existing voice network that Global Crossing uses to deliver fully managed services to more than 110,000 public sector personnel located at 550 locations. Global Crossing is partnering with Siemens to deliver IP-enabled telephony as a first step towards ultimately migrating government users to a fully converged IP VPN communications solution.

Based on Siemens’ HiPath technology, the solution includes the ability to use any de¬vice, in any location and enjoy all the functionality of the desk phone, irrespective of network infrastructure, IP, TDM, PSTN or wireless.

For example, users could be working from home and choose to have all of their calls routed to their home telephone via the PSTN. Alternatively, they could elect to receive their calls on a soft client on their PC, which is connected to the office LAN via a secure IP-VPN. Whichever choice they make, their user profile is available from that phone, providing access to all of the features and privileges they would normally have at their desk – including feature keys, unified messaging, call forwarding and diverts. In addition, the solution provides comprehensive management reports to optimize performance and manage costs.

Siemens AG

Global Crossing Holdings Ltd.