AT&T today announced several enhancements to its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) portfolio that the company says will enable wholesale customers to cost-effectively broaden their footprint and extend the reach of their VoIP calling area.

Wholesale customers will benefit from expanded features, including a new access option for AT&T Voice over IP Connect Service (AVOICS), a new user-based Web enhancement for AT&T Global Hubbing IP Access (GHIA) and additional options in AT&T’s suite of Business VoIP services.

AVOICS is AT&T’s flagship wholesale VoIP platform for U.S. service providers. AVOICS offers IP-based connectivity to AT&T's network and termination of IP voice traffic over the Public Switched Telephone Network. With AVOICS, service providers can offer premium long distance communication service to their customers, according to AT&T.

When building out their networks, wholesale customers now have the flexibility to connect to AVOICS through multiple options. They can connect to AVOICS via the AT&T Private Network Transport (PNT) service, which provides class-of-service voice quality, key security elements and advanced network reliability. Clients now have the added capability of connecting through a new access option called Transport Independent Access (TIA), which offers an economic and efficient way to access AVOICS by using either the Public Internet or on the AT&T network using AT&T Managed Internet Service (MIS).

According to ATLANTIC-ACM, a telecommunications research consultancy and benchmarking firm, as businesses continue to migrate to new solutions, IP-based business solutions such as VoIP can help them advance their convergence strategy to increase overall productivity. “VoIP remains one of the largest growth areas for wholesale providers this year, and AT&T continues to incorporate features that customers require,” said Judy Reed Smith, founder and chief executive officer of ATLANTIC-ACM.