Sprint has unveiled the Partner Interexchange Network (PIN) service to provide business-to-business wholesale exchange of voice traffic. The Sprint PIN service sets up a community of partners who can directly exchange VoIP service between themselves while operating on Sprint’s global Tier 1 IP network.

The company said that because there is a direct exchange between partners, access termination fees and LEC tandem fees can be lowered or eliminated.

While traditional methods of voice traffic delivery operate through the Public Switch Traffic Network (PSTN) and can be expensive, PIN will allow direct exchange between voice network operator partners using VoIP on its IP network, Sprint claimed.

The company added that using a switchless routing framework based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), minutes that cross the PIN architecture are charged at a lower rate than traditional PSTN networks and drive down transport costs. PIN delivers VoIP exchange to multiple on-net partner network destinations (in contrast to establishing multipeering arrangements with multiple partners) and terminations to the PSTN.

According to Sprint, PIN offers greater scalability than traditional VoIP peering. The larger the partner community, the greater the volume of traffic it can support, delivering cost savings to partners.

Dan Dooley, president of Sprint Wholesale Solutions, said: Operators are searching for alternatives for how to deliver voice and data traffic. At Sprint, we are seeing greater demand for Voice over IP services. As more companies adopt VoIP and migrate away from traditional TDM voice services, there is a definite need for affordable, scalable technologies to securely exchange voice traffic. This is what PIN provides.