Verizon Business Partners with Tata Communications

Expands global telepresence reach through agreement with Tata Communications.

Verizon Business, a provider of communications and IT solutions, today announced that it is extending the range of its immersive video, or telepresence, offering to enable virtual face-to-face collaboration in more locations around the world, under a new agreement with Tata Communications, the global telecommunications arm of Tata Group.

The company states that the agreement enables meetings to take place between its telepresence customers and any public or private telepresence room on the Tata Communications Global Meeting Exchange, which is one of the broadest telepresence networks accessible today and a gateway to the company's public room network spanning 31 cities on five continents. This will supplement its telepresence offering powered by its expansive global Private Internet Protocol Network service. Similarly, Tata Communications telepresence customers can use the company's facilities to communicate with Verizon customers.

It avers that telepresence replicates face-to-face interactions so realistically that it feels as though everyone is in the same room, even though they may be hundreds or thousands of miles apart. By leveraging collaboration technology to replace in-person meetings, telepresence reduces travel time and cost while reducing the carbon emissions associated with business travel. As a result, the service makes collaboration among employees, customers, suppliers and business partners more efficient and economical.

The company says that its and Tata Communications' customers currently can use Cisco TelePresence to conduct intercarrier telepresence meetings. Plans are under way to establish similar agreements with other immersive video providers and services to further expand the availability of telepresence.

"Video is the new voice for business, and it's becoming more and more available to meet the changing nature of work," said Farooq Muzaffar, Verizon Vice President of Enterprise Network and Communications Solutions. "As businesses expand beyond the traditional four walls of an office building, we're seeing more of our customers turning to advanced collaboration tools like telepresence for a bigger impact on their overall productivity and performance."

Peter Quinlan, Vice President, Integrated Business Video Services, Tata Communications, said, "We are delighted to welcome Verizon to our global telepresence partner ecosystem. Intercarrier connections such as this one will benefit customers by offering a broader telepresence business ecosystem that connects regardless of network or service provider. It's agreements like this that fundamentally make telepresence a truly global collaboration tool."