NTT Communications announces on November 4 that it will become Japan's first telecom carrier to offer multinational customers a VoIP service for internal dialing between global offices, including Japan, beginning December 1. Plans to launch other new IP communications services also were announced.

NTT Com's new service will enable customers to establish high-quality global-scale internal dialing networks on a quick, low-cost basis using IP technologies. Making calls will be as simple as dialing the base office's extension and then the receiver's extension.

The service will be offered through NTT Com's managed network service for enterprise customers, called Arcstar Global IP-VPN, which will help to eliminate connection failures sometimes encountered with Internet-based VoIP services. Linkage with existing private branch exchanges and NTT Com's VoIP gateway service in Japan, as well as billing for calls on a fixed-rate basis, will help to minimize costs.

The one-stop service combines NTT Com's network and VoIP gateway infrastructure, integrates voice and data, and includes facility operation and maintenance.

Startup will cost just 11,000 yen per base office, and the monthly charge will be only 4,000 yen per base. The service will be available in all 159 countries where NTT Com offers Arcstar Global IP-VPN services. Payments in local currencies will be accepted.

NTT Com also announced plans to launch three more high-quality global IP telephony services from or after April 2011:

• Unified voice, video, web conferencing and instant/unified messaging
• High-quality, low-cost external dialing and call receiving from worldwide bases, and
• Cloud-based global call centers.