From VON Europe in Stockholm, Sweden this week Verizon Business launched several VoIP-related products and services to expand its business presence across the European Union.

The U.S.-based international carrier launched IP trunking in five European markets and will follow with seven more in the second half of 2006. It also introduced its Managed IP PBX service to European-based businesses, launched Hosted IP Centrex to select markets and has made available its global VoIP Gateway Services to the European wholesale market in 12 countries.

The Verizon IP Trunking service is designed for organizations using an IP PBX. It reduces the amount of facilities those organizations need to manage and pay for by connecting the IP PBX platform to the enterprise data network and to the public voice network using a single IP connection.

The service is currently available for customer trials in the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and the U.S. In the second half of this year it will be rolled out to Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. It will initially be available with Cisco Call Manager 4.1.3. By the third quarter support will include Call Manager Express and Avaya Communication Manager 3.

The VoIP gateway service will allow European wholesale customers to offer full IP Telephony-to-PSTN trunking services and global termination of calls through a single, scalable solution.

Verizon also has added enhancements to its IP Integrated Access, the first element of the Verizon VoIP portfolio launched in 2005. The MPLS-based service will now include support for Basic Rate Interfaces for the PBX to the current offering supporting primary rate interfaces. Other enhancements at the local level include Legal Interception in the German market. Later this year, it will be enhanced DSL and Ethernet access.