Orange Business Services, Telefonica dial up telepresence pact

Orange Business Services and Telefonica's (NYSE: TEF) business customers will now be able to access each other's network to conduct telepresence sessions.

By working with service providers that offers interoperability with other telepresence providers, business customers will be able to more easily connect with their respective customers, suppliers and partners that leverage telepresence and videoconferencing.

In addition to Telefonica, Orange recently established a similar telepresence agreement with Tata Communications to expand their Telepresence Community, a B2B Telepresence solution.

Given that the agreement were both founding members of the between the two companies news should not be all that surprising as both are founding members of the Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC), an industry group set on enabling interoperable global B2B connectivity for telepresence and video conferencing across service provider networks. 

Orange and Telefonica aren't alone in their videoconferencing interoperability desires either as other carriers such as AT&T and BT developed a similar agreement late last year, pointing to the idea that more service providers are driving interoperability to connect the disparate telepresence islands. This in turn will enable business customers to connect with their customers, partners and suppliers across a larger telepresence and videoconferencing ecosystem.

For more:
- see the release

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