“Chances are, if you ran a big company you'd have an expensive PBX (private branch exchange) system to juggle extensions, conference calls, and voice mail. For small businesses, a better solution is a virtual PBX, which doesn't require new hardware and is managed via the Web. You get a main number from the hosting company and then route all calls through it to other lines, be it a cell phone or a home-office phone abroad. You can also avoid long-distance charges by routing calls via VoIP.”
PC Magazine 11/01/06
Press8.com assists victims of Hurrican IkePress8's Network
Here at Press 8 Communications, we house SIP proxies and IP PBXes in our state of the art data center. We use multiple fiber optic backbones with Frontier GlobalCenter, Qwest Communications, Genuity, and Time Warner, as well as Qwest Communication's OC192 data line which provides us with redundancy and increased routes to Europe, Latin America and Asia. These tier 1 providers service such giants as Yahoo!, Netscape, Ebay, and USA TODAY.
To ensure the highest possible voice quality, QoS (Quality of Service) is extended from end to end using using superior MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) packet routing, providing an essential element of quality assurance that other QoS methods don't address -- the ability to define route paths on the fly at the packet level. And, we ensure that the needed amount of bandwidth for your voice traffic is pre-allocated, preventing sudden bursts of traffic from affecting your voice path. Furthermore, all voice traffic uses an uncompressed g711 codec using no silence suppression or other "bandwidth savers" (usually at the expense of call quality), providing the highest possible voice quality capable of being used on the public telephone network.
In terminating and originating telephone calls with the PSTN (public switched telephone network), our voice traffic is carried to the award winning Level (3) world-wide network. Capable of terminating calls to anywhere in the world within a single network, Level (3) is the single largest carrier in long-haul and metro routing options, including almost 2,000,000 miles of constructed metro fiber optic. The Level (3) network was the first international network in the world built to be continuously upgradeable and fully optimized for Internet Protocol. Because the network was constructed with multiple conduits, Level (3) can deploy new generations of optical fiber and equipment far more quickly and economically than its competitors - a critical capability in an era of rapid technological change.
In addition to Level (3)'s extensive intercity network infrastructure, Level (3) operates multi-conduit metropolitan networks in over 120 cities in North America and Europe. The metro networks connect Level (3) data centers to key traffic aggregation points in each market, including cable head-ends, cable landing stations, carrier facilities, enterprise facilities, ILEC colocation facilities, Level (3) points of presence, and teleports. In total, Level (3) has more than 5,700 traffic aggregation points.
The Smithsonian Institution noted that Level (3) is changing communications at a fundamental level - and "helping to stimulate the biggest change in communications technology in 100 years."
Level (3) serves some of the world's most sophisticated communications customers:
- 18 of the world's top 20 telecom companies
- 8 of the 10 largest carriers in Europe
- 8 of the top 10 US Internet Service Providers
- 9 of the 10 largest US cable companies
- 3 of the top 4 telecom companies in Asia
- 4 of the top 5 US Wireless Service Providers
