VoIP Vendors Delivering Multimedia Apps

Multimedia applications are a central theme this week at VON in Boston, where several exhibitors are unveiling new solutions for add-ons like video calling and mail, ringback tones and wirelessly-integrated IP PBXs that they say VoIP service providers can use to increase margins and customer loyalty.

“Just having VoIP is no longer a differentiator” for a VoIP vendor, says Andy Randall, vice president of marketing with MetaSwitch. “The same is true for the telcos.”

In an unusual move for a softswitch provider, MetaSwitch this week took the wraps off the MetaSwitch Desktop Assistant, a new productivity-enhancing application. MetaSwitch says it is the first vendor to integrate this functionality into a Class 4/5 softswitch product line. It’s part of MetaSwitch’s UC9000 Unified Communications platform for enhanced services.

Leveraging MetaSwitch’s SIP-based IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Application Server interface, the Desktop Assistant enables enhanced communications capabilities for any endpoint – whether an IP phone or traditional analog line. Key features of the Desktop Assistant include the ability for users to see the full contact details of a caller when their phone rings (“Outlook-enhanced Caller ID”) – and have the option to ignore the call or send to voicemail; manage their contacts, and click on a contact name to initiate a call (“click-to-call”); monitor the presence information of their colleagues and friends, and have the option of sending a quick instant message instead of placing a phone call; be alerted of new voicemail messages by a discreet system tray icon; access recently dialed, received and missed calls; and view and control their phone feature settings – such as turning on "do not disturb" – direct from the main application window.

All the above features are fully integrated with the MetaSwitch Class 4/5 Softswitch. That means, as one example, that the recent call list is downloaded from the switch, so shows all missed calls, even if the Desktop Assistant application was not running at the time of the call.  Similarly, features such as “do not disturb” are not implemented by the client application but control configuration settings on the switch so that their operation is not dependent on the application continuing to run on the user’s computer.  This ensures that the Desktop Assistant enhances – but does not replace or otherwise interfere with – how users currently use their telephone.

In a related release, MetaSwitch today also announced enhanced Auto Attendant functionality, another extension to its UC9000 Unified Communications platform.

Meanwhile, BroadSoft and Sonus Networks Inc. separately are promoting their new ringtone offers.

Sonus and Belkin Corp. at VON are demonstrating a new ring tone service in the Belkin booth. It is based on the Sonus-branded line of Belkin’s VoIP broadband phone adapters and the Sonus ASX Access Server.

Meanwhile, BroadSoft announced its BroadWorks VoIP application platform now supports custom ringback tones. Diane Myers, senior product marketing manager, explains that BroadSoft does not act as a ringtone aggregator (ringtone company Zingy is its reference partner for this), but rather offers a platform that acts as a repository for the ringtones and enables those files to be played as requested.

CLEC Samsung Networks of Korea is the first customer to use BroadSoft’s ringback tone platform; the carrier offers it to wireline customers.

Myers says because BroadSoft already has a media server and application server in place, developing this capability only took it three months. She says this is just another move by BroadSoft to deliver a rich set of applications, adding the company already offers conferencing, mobile PBX, find-me follow-me and video calling applications. (Expect BroadSoft to announce two new client-based applications next month around its user conference, building on its recent Carbon Twelve acquisition.)

Myers adds that while ringtones are a popular consumer offer, businesses could use ringtones to deliver promotional messages. In fact, she says, some service providers are interested in using the BroadSoft-supported ringback application internally. She says that it would be a similar model to Yahoo-branded e-mail in that telephone companies could preface every end user communication or message on their networks with something like “this message powered by Telco ABC.” Service providers could offer to disable that introduction if an enterprise paid a fee, says Myers, who adds “I suspect most [businesses] would not pay for that” to be disabled.

BroadSoft also this week promoted a joint solution, with IP videophone provider InnoMedia, that lets users make video calls seamlessly between 3G mobile and IP phones. Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. launched commercial video calling services on the solution in the first quarter of this year. Myers says Singtel wants to increase adoption of video calling, but since not all people have 3G phones, it wanted to extend that to wireline phones. “This is a validation point that [video calling and wireless/wireline integration] is really happening,” she says.

Myers adds another interesting application is video audio attendant. That could allow a network operator offering TV services to run clips to promote its programming while a video caller was on hold, for example.

Another company pushing video at the VON show is BayPackets, which announced Videomail as an enhancement to its Agility Unified Communications Application.

Videomail is built on BayPackets’ Agility SIP Application Server and Brooktrout Technology’s SnowShore IP Media Server and is the first in a series of multimedia solutions BayPackets and its partners will announce in the coming months. “Most people understand that if VoIP isn’t cheap, it should be,” says Kenneth Epps, president and CEO at BayPackets. “With [services] like ringtones, you can add $2 a month to the bill. Videomail is the same [in terms of its potential to increase ARPU]. We believe it’s the first step to multimedia-type services.” Epps says that while Videomail, which comes available next month, could be used in business or residential applications, he believes it will initially take off in the consumer market.

Netcentrex, which has more than 2 million residential VoIP lines globally deployed on its equipment, already offers video voicemail and video telephony, among other applications, says Brian Mahoney, vice president of marketing at Netcentrex. France Telecom uses the Netcentrex software to support its video telephony service, he says.

Integrating wireless services in with PBX solutions is also a key theme here.

Avaya and Sprint today make an announcement in this vein, as did Lucent Technologies.

Lucent will be adding CDMA, and later GSM, phones as an extension to its hosted IP PBX services. The CDMA piece will available by the end of the year. The GSM is expected next year. “This is a precursor of what you can do with IMS,” says Rob Falkner, director of strategy and offers for managed services at Lucent, which he says will reveal more details of this wireless/wireline strategy at the upcoming CTIA show.

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