BT, Orange establish telepresence connectivity agreement

BT (NYSE: BT) and Orange Business Services have agreed to let each of their own respective video exchange customers conduct telepresence meetings using each other's network.

This pact will help both service providers' telepresence customers more readily reach their key partners and suppliers in both public and private videoconferencing endpoints.

The service will be available to all BT and Orange Telepresence Community customers via Cisco's (Nasdaq: CSCO) TelePresenceequipment.

Through this arrangement, any Cisco TelePresence customer of BT's Global Video Exchange or Orange Business Services Telepresence Community will be able to invite each other's clients to join them in multipoint telepresence meetings.

To use the service, customers will just have to contact their respective service provider and at that point will be given conferencing information to share with other meeting participants.

Establishing videoconferencing pacts between service providers is a key element to help the videoconferencing segment grow, especially as service providers look to compete for multinational corporations that have multiple sites that want one provider that can accommodate their needs. Over the past year, BT and Orange have been aggressively garnering these relationships with other service providers, including AT&T (NYSE: T), Sprint (NYSE: S) and Tata (NYSE: TCL).

For more:
- see the release

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