COLUMBUS International, which operates under the name Flow, said it achieved the highest level of certification for SIP Trunking for Microsoft Lync.

Passing the TLS/SRTP high encryption voice certification test for Lync Server 2013 makes it the seventh company to do so and the only operator in Latin America and the Caribbean to be certified at that level.

“Lync is a unified communications platform that enables a consistent, rich experience across organisations and devices including presence, voice, video and messaging,” said a statement issued by the telecommunications provider.

“Lync delivers a solution to enterprises which unifies all of the modes of modern business communication,” said Carlos Silvestre, Business Development Manager — Lync, LATAM at Microsoft. “Microsoft certification gives CIOs and IT professionals peace of mind that Columbus’ Cloud Voice business trunking services are fully tested and compatible with Lync 2013.”

Having successfully fulfilled all of the technical requirements outlined by the Microsoft engineering team to become a qualified SIP trunk provider for Lync 2013, Columbus Business Solutions, the retail business brand of Columbus, will now roll out related services to organisations across the region.

“Columbus SIP trunking offers carrier grade architecture that greatly enhances security, bringing encrypted signaling based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to any organization in the CALA / Caribbean region,” said Luciano Ramos, senior director technology at Columbus. “This is the latest example of our commitment to providing advanced IT Business solutions to enterprises in the region, continuing our corporate philosophy of ‘enabling the future’.”

Columbus provides digital cable television, broadband Internet and digital landline telephony in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada and Curacao under the brand name FLOW and in St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines and Antigua under the brand name Karib Cable.

Columbus also provides corporate data and cloud- based services under the brand Columbus Business Solutions.

Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Columbus Networks, the Company provides capacity and IP services, corporate data solutions and data center hosting throughout 42 countries throughout the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region.

Through its fully protected, ringed submarine fibre optic network spanning more than 42,300 kilometre (km) and its 26,400 km terrestrial fibre and coaxial network, Columbus’ 2,600 plus professionals provide advanced telecom services to a diverse residential and corporate client base of over 600,000 customers.