February 03, 2012
Global Telecom Service Providers Join Forces to Launch Global Meeting Alliance
By Rahul Arora, TMCnet Contributor
According to a recent press release, Tata Communications (News - Alert) has joined forces with nine global service providers to form the Global Meeting Alliance. With the Global Meeting Alliance, any service provider can connect to any enterprise or institution, irrespective of service provider.
“Tata Communications continues to demonstrate its commitment to facilitating an open, global ecosystem that moves business video from an intracompany experience to a collaboration tool with worldwide reach. The Global Meeting Alliance is central to this strategy, and today, all alliance members are taking a major step towards making an open community for business video a reality,” said Peter Quinlan, vice president of Integrated Business Video Services at Tata Communications, in a statement.
Officials from the companies said the alliance will help service providers interconnect their respective business video communities, as well as solve shared-industry challenges by undertaking a collaborative approach.
Mike McRoberts, director of Product Management, Sprint (News 
- Alert), said, “Sprint is excited to participate in the Global Meeting Alliance initiative. With the tremendous growth in business video, Sprint is committed to leveraging the Global Meeting Alliance and its open ecosystem foundation to deliver the benefits of a rich global collaboration experience to our customers.”
The launch members of Global Meeting Alliance include Sprint, Glowpoint (News - Alert) and TELUS in North America, Safaricom in Africa, Telstra in Australia, Etisalat, Qtel and Mobily in the Middle East, and Neotel in South Africa.
“This is a major step forward for the video conferencing industry and its customers,” said Andrew W. Davis, senior partner and co-founder of Wainhouse Research. “By making B2B calls easier and by interconnecting different carriers, the Global Meeting Alliance will drive the usage of videoconferencing and Telepresence (News - Alert) systems, enabling customers to see faster and higher returns on their investments. With its history of wholesale network services, intercarrier experience, and public room support, Tata Communications is in a unique position to launch this alliance.”
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, happening now, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration, click here.
Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.
Rahul Arora is a TMCnet contributor. He has worked as an editor and freelance writer for several reputed organizations in India. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
