Back in January 2010 I mentioned how XConnect's peering federation announced at ITEXPO was now offering "High-Definition (HD) Voice Peering Federation". Their federation service for carrier peering let's you carry both HD voice and HD video by passing codecs across carrier networks. I explained one of the stumbling blocks to HD voice when I wrote:

Once you make an outside call then your carrier has to support HD. Further, if your carrier has to hand the call off to another carrier to terminate the call, you need both carriers to have a peering agreement to allow the HD codec to traverse their network. Lastly, for HD to work across networks, the entire call path including the endpoints themselves must also support high definition.

Well, that's where XConnect comes into play. At the 2010 ITEXPO XConnect announced they are bringing to market the first carrier-based HD Federation which will enable scalable, secure all-IP interconnection, using ENUM technology, to enable cross-network, end-to-end HD traffic between service providers.

XConnect was already a leader in peering and ENUM registry lookups, however I expected this HD capability across carrier networks would be a huge driver to XConnect's success. Today, XConnect confirmed their HD peering capability is one of the factors leading to huge growth in revenue and traffic for 2010.

XConnect said its revenue increased 90% in 2010 based on traffic growth of 153%. XConnect said it acquired 42 new service-provider customers across the globe, and it experienced a 161% increase from 2009 in the number of queries to its ENUM registry from operators seeking to interconnect voice, video, data, messaging and multimedia communications sessions.

“2010 was a key year for IP communications,” said XConnect CEO Eli Katz. “We are now witnessing the real commercial deployments of multimedia IP communications, including video calling and high-definition voice. For this evolution to trigger mass-market adoption, there is one key requirement: cross-network capability with full multimedia IP interconnect and interoperability. This is exactly what we do, enabling operators to maximize usage and opportunities for revenue and margin growth from these new services.”

“We are enjoying sustained growth with our Interconnect 2.0 and ENUM-registry services that enable operators to shift from traditional PSTN to IP communications,” said Katz. “We are also leading the way, on a global basis, in helping service providers take advantage of new opportunities, such as HD voice and video.”

Katz added, “Our 2010 results demonstrate that fixed, Web 2.0 and pure-play service providers increasingly are turning to XConnect as a single trusted, neutral provider in deploying cross-network innovative multimedia services.”

In addition to the overall migration to IP, Katz listed several specific contributors to XConnect’s success, involving trends he expects to accelerate this year:

• Rising adoption of new IP-based services that require cross-network interconnection. “More and more operators are introducing new services, and if they are not offering them yet, you can be sure they have them on their road maps,” Katz said. “Last year was the year HD voice took off, and our launch of the world’s first HD voice federation capitalized on that heightened interest. 2011 will be the breakthrough year for interconnected video calling – a trend we are looking to help drive.”
• Expanding activity involving XConnect’s national federations. Last year saw introduction of a federation for South Africa, as well as growing use of the company’s previously-established national federations. Katz said XConnect expects to create additional national or regional federations in 2011.  
• Increasing recognition and adoption of ENUM as the preferred means for efficient number discovery and call routing. Katz cited interoperability between XConnect Registry Services and the GSMA’s PathFinder number translation service as evidence of this trend.

Pointing to a new growth driver for 2011, Katz said, “Beyond the original purpose of interconnecting service providers, we are seeing and pursuing emerging potential for our Interconnect 2.0 services in the enterprise environment, supported by moves toward enterprise federation by the leading unified communications vendors.”

I'm guessing he's referring to Microsoft Lync and Cisco CUCM. Enables company A running Microsoft Lync to federate with company B also running Microsoft Lync would allow for free calling as well as HD voice and video.