ESA Signs $1.5 M Voice for IP VPN Deal With Equant

February 21, 2002 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Equant, a leader in IP and data services, announced on Thursday that the European Space Agency has signed a $1.5 million contract for Equant Voice for IP VPN services. The deal builds on the three-year, $6 million IP VPN contract the ESA signed with Equant last year, covering its 32 worldwide sites.

According to the deal, Equant (equant.com) will provide the ESA with private branch exchange interconnection for voice and fax on-net calling in nearly 60 countries and off-net calling to 240 countries and territories. It also covers videoconferencing capabilities between the ESA’s five main European sites.

Equant’s Voice for IP VPN, says the company, delivers voice calling with the same quality as switched voice, while providing the cost advantages of integrating voice, data and IP traffic over a single network. The ESA has already been using Equant’s IP VPN service to securely transmit information on space missions, remote detection applications and Earth Remote Sensing.

"We are anxious to add voice and videoconferencing capabilities to our IP VPN network," says Michael Tabbert, head of the ESA's IT Infrastructure Division. "The network is helping to increase our administrative efficiency. The high-speed Internet capabilities are important to our outreach program by providing the public easy access to a vast array of information about our mission."

Key in the ESA solution, says Equant, is remote dial access in more than 130 countries and territories, including difficult-to-reach areas, like Kazakhstan, where some ESA launches take place.