[0] iBasis delivers high-quality Internet voice services.

Throughout Latin America, Basis, Inc. is a leader in providing high-quality, cost-effective Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to major telecom carriers.

"Our patented technology allows us to deliver the quality of service (QoS) that businesses need," says Juan Bergelund, vice president, Latin America. "As a result, we can provide international voice and fax services of very high quality and at a very competitive price. We are also well-positioned to offer new leading-edge services in the near future."

By combining advanced technology with world-class IP and telephony engineering expertise, iBasis has built the world's first global network to guarantee "toll quality" voice and fax service, the highest level obtainable. The ability to deliver toll quality is a prerequisite for carrying tier one carrier voice and fax traffic.

In April, iBasis (NASDAQ: IBAS) announced that Operadora Protel, S.A. de C.V., "Protel", one of Mexico's leading national carriers, will provide VoIP-based international service through an agreement with iBasis.

"For Protel, the partner of choice was clear since iBasis is the only VoIP carrier with both a global footprint and the proven ability to reliably deliver toll quality service to the world's largest carriers," said Pablo Ruiz Galindo, CEO of Protel.

iBasis, which is based in Burlington, Mass., uses its proprietary Assured Quality Routing (AQR) technology which detects Internet congestion and dynamically reroutes traffic to the global circuit-switched (PSTN) network when necessary, thus ensuring the highest quality of service to customers worldwide.

Founded in 1996 as VIP Calling, iBasis has built the world's largest Cisco-powered network for Internet telephony with an open architecture that lets customers deploy new services while reducing costs.

iBasis estimates that the international VoIP long distance market current totals US$100 billion worldwide.

iBasis, which had $22 million in revenue in 1999, is growing at nearly 30% a quarter. The company's goal this year is $75 million, with about a third of revenues coming from Latin America.

iBasis completed second round financing totaling $500 million in March. The company plans to invest those funds in deploying 22 Internet central offices (COs), in regional locations like Florida, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Venezuela.

"The main reason for deploying central offices is to deliver the next generation of value-added services," says Bergelund. For instance, iBasis plans to enter the Internet telephony hosting market, serving international and regional carriers, "next gen telcos," and Internet service providers (ISPs).

By providing Internet telephony hosting, iBasis removes the time and capital-intensive burden of building, deploying and managing worldwide IP networks. Service providers are then free to focus on sales, marketing and customer care.

"iBasis is offering service providers a new model for obtaining the critical infrastructure and management resources they need to be successful in international Internet telephony," said Mark Winther, group vice president Worldwide Telecommunications, IDC, a U.S. consulting firm.

iBasis also plans to be in the forefront of unified messaging, which integrates the three most popular types of messaging -- voice mail, e-mail and fax -- into a single mailbox accessible by both voice and data devices.

For example, if you are a Colombian executive who comes to the U.S. with a laptop, you'll be able to get all your messages from the computer, using advanced text-to-speech and speech-to-text software," Bergelund says. "You will also be able to respond to those messages over the public Internet, with no distance or time constraints."

iBasis is looking for partners in various Latin regions to develop its first unified messaging products. "The real potential of this technology goes beyond laptops and computers," he says. "Everyone in Latin America has cell phones, and in the near future, you will be able to receive voice mail, e-mail and faxes over a standard phone, and reply to the sender."