8x8 Selects Neutral Tandem for Its Broad HD Voice Routing
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CHICAGO, Aug. 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neutral Tandem, Inc.,
(Nasdaq:TNDM), a leading provider of global interconnection services,
announces the launch of HD Voice Interconnect. Neutral Tandem's HD
Voice service is a High Definition wideband voice interconnection
solution for the competitive carrier market. Neutral Tandem solves the
problem of non-interconnected 'islands of HD' by providing easy access
to other HD carriers interconnected with Neutral Tandem, and adds
incremental value to carrier investments in IP networks and Voice over
IP (VoIP) services. The service has been successfully interconnected
with 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq:EGHT), a provider of innovative communications
and computing solutions, who announced its own ability to deliver HD
Calling to business phone service subscribers in January 2010.

The service is aimed at providing carriers and service providers,
poised to launch wideband calling services, the opportunity to
efficiently route HD Voice calls between competitive carriers and
hosted Voice Application Providers. HD Voice provides increased call
clarity, meaning that conference call users can better understand other
speakers and enhanced applications like IVR, speech recognition and
transcription systems work with greater accuracy. The service requires
a SIP interconnect that routes HD Voice across Neutral Tandem's network
that is capable of terminating calls to over 550M telephony end points,
and offers completion for any call regardless of whether the
terminating party can terminate wideband voice.

"As a proven leader in offering HD interconnection solutions for
service providers, Neutral Tandem's solution makes it easy for us to
provide the enhanced audio fidelity required by our subscribers and
completes the calls across its all-IP network," comments Bryan Martin,
Chairman and CEO of 8x8. "They simplify the delivery of high-quality
voice solutions end-to-end, and with their 'off-net' routing
capabilities, there's no need to create multiple HD peering
relationships or routing configurations with numerous carriers, they do
it all."

Neutral Tandem's HD Voice service is readily accessible to any carrier
with HD Voice traffic. It is unique in that it provides a bridge to
connect between carriers and across markets. Furthermore, the solution
does not require an ENUM registry, where numbers have to be uploaded by
each carrier and 'dipped' at call set up. Due to the private nature of
the service, customers simply route calls to Neutral Tandem and if the
terminating carrier supports HD Voice, it is completed as such;
otherwise, the call is completed on Neutral Tandem's extensive global
voice network.

"We are excited to provide a comprehensive HD Voice solution to support
carriers deploying wideband voice technology," comments Surendra Saboo,
COO of Neutral Tandem. "We have designed our solution to be
straightforward, without requiring complex routing tables or special
number provisioning. We look forward to speaking with other carriers
and service providers who are planning wideband voice deployments
regarding testing and interconnecting to our HD voice service, to
maximize the value for their customers."

Neutral Tandem's HD Voice solution is designed to provide the carrier
market a broad High Definition footprint to terminate quality voice
traffic to mobile and wireline carriers. The service offers improved
quality and low latency voice termination across its entire private
SIP-based network. HD Voice is a seamless service to Neutral Tandem's
existing voice termination platform that manages over 11 billion
minutes a month. To learn more about Neutral Tandem's products and
services designed to help competitive carriers interconnect their
networks, contact HDVoice@NeutralTandem.com or visit
www.neutraltandem.com.

Cautions Concerning Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve
substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than
statements of historical fact, included in this press release regarding
Neutral Tandem's strategy, future operations, future financial
position, future revenues, projected costs, prospects, plans and
objectives of management are forward-looking statements. The words
"anticipates," "believes," "expects," "estimates," "projects," "plans,"
"intends," "may," "will," "would," and similar expressions are intended
to identify forward-looking statements, although not all
forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Actual
results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions
and expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements Neutral
Tandem makes. Factors that might cause such differences include, but
are not limited to: risks associated with our ability to successfully
develop and market HD voice services, including but not limited to
identifying, obtaining, operating and maintaining attractive network
switch sites, equipment, software and business support systems; our
inability to interconnect with third parties or obtain necessary third
party rights or permits on a timely basis, if at all; cost estimation
errors or overruns; material delays or shortages; and other factors,
many of which are beyond our control and all of which could delay or
negatively affect our ability to offer HD voice services; and other
important factors included in our reports filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, particularly in the "Risk Factors" section of
Neutral Tandem's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended
December 31, 2010 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period
ended March 31, 2011, as such Risk Factors may be updated from time to
time in subsequent reports. Furthermore, such forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We
undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to
reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.

About Neutral Tandem, Inc.

Headquartered in Chicago, Neutral Tandem, Inc. provides voice, data and
video interconnection services worldwide. Neutral Tandem recently
acquired Tinet, a global carrier exclusively committed to the IP
Transit and Ethernet wholesale market. The acquisition combines Neutral
Tandem's interconnection services for wireless, wireline, cable and
broadband companies with Tinet's global IP backbone. Collectively,
Neutral Tandem provides voice, IP Transit and Ethernet solutions to
carriers, service providers, and content management firms worldwide.
With over 100 Ethernet sites, the company is now the largest global
Ethernet interconnection provider, a top 10 global IPv4 backbone
provider and has a leading IPv6 network. Please visit Neutral Tandem's
website at www.neutraltandem.com and follow us on
Twitter@NeutralTandem.

The Neutral Tandem, Inc. logo is available at
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