status - Vox

Vox Proudly Attains Google Verified Peering Provider Status

Posted on 16 February 202616 February 2026 by Vivienne Fouche

Vox Proudly Attains Google Verified Peering Provider Status

A significant accolade in the local ISP landscape

Vox is proud to announce that it has become a Google Verified Peering Provider, one of a select group in the South African ISP arena. The Verified Peering Provider (VPP) Programme identifies a group of internet service providers (ISPs) that have demonstrated diverse and reliable connectivity to Google. ISPs are awarded a Verified Peering Provider badge based on technical criteria related to their connectivity depth with Google.

“The Verified Peering Provider Programme is a recent accreditation from Google that recognises ISPs with high-quality, optimised connectivity into Google’s global network,” says Chris Burrell, Head of Network at Vox. “The Programme identifies providers that meet stringent technical and capacity standards, including diverse peering links to Google, ensuring faster access, improved performance, and greater reliability for customers using Google services.

“The Verified Peering Provider Programme is basically a ‘trusted partner’ list. Networks on it can connect directly to Google to access the content in a way that’s fast, safe and of the highest quality. You could think of it as a shortcut to get premium, direct access to Google services and content.”

Vox Customers using Google services such as YouTube, Gmail, Google Workspace, Google Meet and applications hosted on Google Cloud infrastructure will experience improved performance, reduced latency, and greater service reliability.

We unpack how the Google Verified Peering Provider Programme works and the benefits customers can enjoy.

‘Let’s Shake Hands…’

Burrell notes that in today’s Cloud-focused world, Google customers need simple and highly available connectivity solutions to reach publicly available Google resources such as Workspace and other internet-facing applications.

He explains: “Peering is like two networks shaking hands and saying, ‘Let’s share traffic/content directly with each other, instead of sending it through a middleman.’ It makes internet usage, including websites, videos, voice and Cloud apps, faster and more reliable for users, providing higher quality of experience.

“Many customers connect to Google Workspace, Google Cloud, or Google APIs using Direct Peering or via Route Server infrastructures at Internet Exchanges. These solutions provide network operators interconnectivity to Google.

“However, not all Google customers today are able to manage the complex connections of Peering, or they don’t meet the relevant requirements to maintain the high-quality standards required by Content providers. Against this context, using a Verified Peering Provider to connect to Google simplifies connectivity to Google’s network, and removes the complexity of managing Direct Peering connectivity.”

By leaving Direct Peering to the ISPs, the Verified Peering Provider programme enables Google customers to access all Google services without the complexities of Direct Peering. Verified Peering Providers manage Direct Peering with Google over dedicated private connectivity with redundancy requirements for each enrolled provider.

When Google customers connect to a Verified Peering Provider to reach Google, they are choosing a provider that has verified diverse connectivity to Google, which enables highly available access to Google services.

Benefits of the Google Verified Peering Provider Programme

As Burrell outlines, Google evaluates networks that would like to be peering partners: “Vox went through a stringent application and technical review process showing that we meet their performance, network stability, reliability and capacity standards,” he says. “As a result of our successful application, we are able to offer our customers a number of benefits.”

This includes the following:

Simplified connectivity: There is no need to meet Google’s peering requirements; instead, customers can leave the complexities of peering arrangements to Vox as a Verified Peering Provider.
High availability: The Google badge shows that the ISP has a highly redundant connectivity to Google.
Enterprise grade connectivity: Customers can connect to Google through internet products designed for enterprises; further, they can access Google with or without the need for border gateway protocol (BGP) or an autonomous system number (ASN). In addition, customers can work directly with the ISP’s customer services teams and operational escalations

Burrell clarifies that Vox’s Verified Peering Provider Programme is suitable for enterprises and businesses running Google Cloud apps, ISPs or partners reselling internet services, and any tech-savvy user streaming, collaborating or relying on Google services.

He adds: “Because Vox is a Verified Peering Provider, this ensures Google traffic is routed over well-engineered, high-capacity direct interconnects, reducing unnecessary transit paths and improving consistency. It’s part of Vox’s ongoing investment in network quality and reliability.

“Vox is truly proud of this accolade, because it’s a mark of trust from Google, and not every local ISP will be able to qualify. It shows that Vox meets high technical standards and can deliver premium internet performance for Google services, making service better for our existing and future customers,” concludes Burrell.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Google Verified Peering Provider?
A Verified Peering Provider is an ISP that has met Google’s technical and capacity standards for direct peering, offering optimised and reliable access to Google’s services.

How will this improve performance for Google services?
Direct peering reduces the number of network hops and potential bottlenecks, resulting in lower latency, faster load times and more consistent performance for apps like YouTube and Google Workspace.

Do Vox customers need to change anything to benefit?
No. Vox manages the peering relationship with Google. Most customers will see improved performance without changing their configuration.

Is this available to all Vox customers?
Benefits depend on routing and service configurations, but the VPP status enhances overall connectivity for enterprise and business customers across Vox’s network.

Can resellers and other ISPs use Vox as a Verified Peering Provider?
Yes. Resellers and partner ISPs can work with Vox to provide their customers with optimised access to Google services via Vox’s peering infrastructure.

Does this replace direct peering for larger customers?
No. Organisations that already operate direct peering can continue to do so. VPP provides an alternative path for customers who prefer Vox to manage peering complexities.

How does Vox ensure redundancy and reliability?
Vox maintains diverse, redundant links and operational processes that meet Google’s VPP requirements, ensuring high availability and predictable routing for Google-bound traffic.

What’s a 3CX – And What Does Titanium Status Actually Mean?

Posted on 22 November 20242 December 2024 by Natalie van der Merwe

In an IT world full of acronyms, we unpack this brilliant technology

3CX is an open-standard[1], software-based business phone system that delivers advanced telephony functionality and is super easy to use, manage and install. 3CX is an Enterprise-grade communications platform that is primarily targeted at the SME market due to its affordability – and yet, in an interesting twist, many enterprise businesses are also adopting 3CX, as they take note of its benefits.

3CX offers very competitive pricing, as well as feature-rich Unified Communication functionality, which includes instant messaging or chat; Voice; video conferencing and data sharing; email, voicemail and SMS; and out-of-the-box integrations into popular CRMs.

Vox is a 3CX Titanium Partner – we operate at the highest 3CX partnership level, to the tremendous benefit of our customers. We are also one of a select few Titanium partners in South Africa, the highest level that a 3CX partner can achieve, and awarded only to 3CX’s most successful and experienced partners.

Benefits for Vox Clients

Titanium partner status is reserved for true 3CX all-stars! This, together with our Advanced Technical Certification, guarantees our customers excellent service and support. In addition, Titanium partner status ensures we get the best price from 3CX, which allows us to offer an enterprise grade product at pricing all customers can afford.

We are also Certified as a Preferred 3CX SIP Trunk provider[2] (one of only two in South Africa), which gives customers additional peace of mind that our network is compatible with any 3CX deployment. We have been thoroughly tested with 3CX to ensure no manual configurations, which means you can simply plug and play your PBX with our SIP trunks.

How the Vox-3CX Partnership Began

Before onboarding 3CX, Vox was selling a combination of open-sourced, on-premises and cloud-based solutions, which provided very basic PBX functionality. Although it satisfied the requirement for thousands of customers, we knew that we needed to expand our portfolio to be more relevant with our offerings and technology.

Simply put, we needed a product that would carry us into the future.

Before 2020, on-premises solutions were becoming less relevant, and our customer demands for UC&C[3] were increasing significantly – which our solutions at the time did not offer. When we were faced with the pandemic in 2020, it became clear that we required UC&C offerings to cater to our customers’ work from home communication requirements.

Becoming a 3CX partner for Vox was a very seamless process, but it did take drive, dedication and ambition to take this further and achieve Titanium status. Vox is an agile business, and so we are able to make decisions and change direction very quickly to ensure that our customers have the products and services they need.

In the quest to present the best solution possible, we spent significant time in our R&D labs running tests, documenting our installation best practices and automating many of our provisioning processes. The end result was being able to go to market confidently with a working solution, and without any hiccups. This was a critical step, as it cemented our long-term relationship with our customers.

Our engineers flew through the technical certification process and managed to achieve Advanced Technical certification within the first two months of becoming a 3CX partner.

Our team of sales specialists, who are dedicated to anything PBX, also completed their technical certifications, which gave them the ability to confidently design and sell 3CX solutions to prospective customers.

3CX made it easy for Vox to become technically certified with their free on-line training and assessments.

Along the Way

Together with the certification for Technicians and Sales Specialists, we also upskilled all our direct and indirect sales force employees, equipping them to understand the value of 3CX and uncover opportunities with customers. Overall, our comprehensive training programme included everyone from sales, pre-sales, installations engineers, support engineers, and core engineers.

We moved through the partner status ranks in record time – starting at Bronze, we worked our way up to Titanium status in less than one year (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium) – a feat of which we’re very proud, as it shows our ability to adapt, and our willingness to do more.

It wasn’t very long after launching that we realised we had hit the jackpot – our customers loved 3CX, our sales staff loved 3CX and our engineers loved 3CX! This was a recipe for success and before we knew it, we were hitting the lights out.

Moving forward

Vox is able to support all types and sizes of customers – we have 3CX customers ranging from two or three extensions to customers with thousands of extensions.

And in addition to this, we don’t only sell 3CX – Vox offers a complete suite of complementary products: from last mile connectivity and market leading uncapped or rated calling plans, world-class data infrastructure to host customers 3CX services, to telephone expense management reporting. We are proud to add this to our 3CX achievements over the last three to four years.

The journey to Titanium Partner status demands a high level of technical skill, dedication to customer satisfaction, and a proven track record in implementing 3CX solutions.

Becoming a 3CX Titanium Partner marked a significant achievement for Vox, and we are very proud to be able to let our clients know that we have achieved this milestone in supporting and maintaining their 3CX systems.

[1] An open standard is a standard that is freely available for adoption, implementation and updates. Examples include XML, SQL and HTML Businesses within an industry share open standards because this allows them to bring value to both themselves and to customers.

[2] SIP Trunks are virtual phone lines that are delivered over the internet, replacing the need for physical telephone lines.

[3] Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) integrates diverse communication tools, such as Voice, IP Telephony Calling, Instant Messaging, Desktop Sharing, Presence, and Web Conferencing, Audio Conferencing, and Video Conferencing, to interact together in a virtually seamless way.

Good Things Come in 3s

Posted on 19 June 20241 August 2024 by Natalie van der Merwe

The days of on-site PBX systems connected via theft-prone, vulnerable copper cables are gone.

Even in today’s digital era, every organisation still needs to make and receive telephone calls. And with as many as 28.2% of American employees working in a hybrid manner, and up to 16% of companies fully remote[1], businesses have found that Cloud-based phone systems have helped employees – and therefore the companies they work for – to remain productive.

3CX is a leading global, software-based Cloud PBX provider that uses Voice over Internet Protocols (VOIP). This innovative brand has made the business world sit up and take notice.

3CX is accessible via the Cloud over any means of data connection, and empowers organisations to embrace hybrid working without sacrificing the essential features and functions needed for their business. In South Africa, according to the BrandMapp 2023 annual survey, 53% of employed adults earning R10,000+ per month are working remotely or according to a hybrid work model[2].

Embrace the Future of Communications

The days of on-site PBX systems connected via theft-prone, vulnerable copper cables are gone.

As a hosted phone system – meaning a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) – using VoIP, 3CX eliminates the need for legacy infrastructure. Instead of relying on traditional copper lines, your business can make calls over the Internet and have access to a wide range of advanced features, such as video calling, instant messaging, an integrated call centre, mobile applications and more.

3CX was founded in 2005, when VoIP was still an emerging technology, and since then, it has gone on to establish itself as a global leader in business communications. Today, the company is a Cloud PBX leader empowering more than 600,000 customers across 190 countries.

You could think of 3CX as being the pioneers in the Cloud PBX space: the Cloud PBX provider that dared to dream beyond traditional boundaries, making communication smoother, smarter and more efficient. And as one of the largest 3CX partners in South Africa, Vox is proud to carry a 3CX Titanium partner status – 3CX’s highest partner tier, reserved only for 3CX all-stars – and offers tailored solutions for businesses of all sizes. Our Advanced Technical Certification guarantees you excellent service and support.

How Can 3CX Help Your Business?

Many people still want to be able to contact a business through a voice call, as they feel more comfortable talking to a person, instead of sending emails into the ether that may or may not be read – let alone receive a reply. Combine this with the new world order in which people work from home at least some of the time, and 3CX is a winning choice.

With 3CX, you can ensure that your business operates smoothly, while also keeping the costs of communication down. Because the company uses the Internet to transmit and receive calls, 3CX provides more features while allowing for better flexibility.

With one unified system, your team is able to work efficiently from anywhere at no extra cost – so there is no need to purchase any add-ons for web conferencing, mobile apps, live chat, business text messaging and Facebook integration, because they are all included in the annual cost. Employees can easily make inbound and outbound calls in or outside the office.

As a hosted phone system, 3CX offers great functionality and reliability across desktop and mobile devices, and can also be used with conventional SIP phone handsets.

At Vox, we work with respected SIP phone providers like Yealink, SNOM and Gigaset. 3CX has evolved from its roots as a PBX phone system to a complete communications platform, offering customers a simple, flexible and affordable solution to call, video and live chat. Your business will be enabled to increase productivity and enhance customer experiences, while cutting costs and giving management something to smile about.

And with 3CX and Vox, there’s a lot to get excited about, because this partnership is not just about phone calls – it’s about transforming the way you do business with 24 / 7 support when you need it.

As a Titanium 3CX partner, let Vox help your business to keep growing, without outgrowing your phone system.

[1] Info obtained from Forbes report: Remote Work Statistics & Trends In (2024) – Forbes Advisor

[2] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/whyfive_hybridwork-brandmapp-newinsights-activity-7159136052845129729-tQ7i/

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