The Fall VON exposition (as distinct from the conference), which took place Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, was a interesting in many ways, not the least of which was its segmentation into a number of sub-expos—including an Asterisk World area, a video over Web pavilion, a unified communications pavilion, and Vondex, a fledgling event for the telecom reseller channel.
We checked out all of these entities, met with a slew of vendors, and caught wind of many industry announcements. Below, you’ll find news from Polycom and Endeavor, iBasis, and infrastructure hardware providers NexTone and ReefPoint.
Endeavor, Polycom in Strategic Deployment Partnership
Atlanta-based Endeavor Telecom, which dubs itself “the Telecom Truck-Roll Company of Choice”, is a ‘white label’ provider of professional installation services across North America. Which is to say that the trucks in question, more often than not, carry the logos of carriers, VARs, and system integrators, rather than Endeavor’s.
At the Boston show, IP phone and audio/video conferencing equipment vendor Polycom announced an agreement with Endeavor whereby the latter company’s services will be available through Polycom’s distribution channel, to service-provider-partners seeking professional implementation services on a nationwide basis
In addition to installing, testing, and supporting Polycom phones, Endeavor’s thousands of certified technicians will provide customized installation services—such as inside wiring, network switches, traffic shaping appliances, and gateways—and training.
Endeavor CEO, Justin McLain said “the combination of Ploycom’s superior products with our turnkey implementation services ensures that service providers can expect an IP PBX offering that consists of unsurpassed call quality, smooth deployments, and delighted end users throughout North America.” Moreover, he pointed out, Endeavor’s white label approach “allows Polycom partners to deliver these benefits while continuing to achieve their own brands equity goals.”
One further benefit to the partnership is that Polycom partners will gain access to the Endeavor Service Portal—an online (and real-time) order entry, dispatching, and job-costing system that can be integrated directly with partners’ back office systems, providing huge efficiency dividends.
iBasis Unveils DirectSIP Portfolio of VoIP Services
Global wholesale carrier of international phone traffic iBasis—which became one of the top three such companies last month when it acquired KPN Global Carrier Services—announced DirectSIP, a platform that makes it quick and easy for service providers to deploy SIP-based applications, such as click-to-call and Web-activated telephony.
The foundation of DirectSIP is the iBasis Global Network, which provides highly available, redundant DirectSIP interconnects through SIP proxies and session border controllers (SBCs) in the firm’s Internet central offices. According to senior director of worldwide marketing, Chris Ward, the iBasis SBC architecture not only “enhances security, but it ensures high voice quality with regionally optimized media routing.”
Another plank in the platform is DirectSIP Transcoding, the multi-codec capability integral to iBasis’s core network. This eliminates the need for transcoding at the edgr of the customer network and allows providers to send all their international traffic directly to iBasis, regardless of codecs.
DirectSIP Click-to-Call, lets voice over broadband providers capitalize on the rapidly growing consumer demand for enhances voices services. Mobile social communications provider Tokiva recently deployed its service using DirectSIP Click-to-Call.
“We had previously tried to create this serfice through other meass but were frustrated by the technical limitations of other carriers,: said Tokiva founder and CEO, Tong Li. “With DirectSIP, the voice quality is superb and we can quickly scale to accommodate increased demand, and have the ability to rapidly respond to new developments in the marketplace and bring our customers the latest applications and services.:
NexTone, ReefPoint Announce Integrated Edge Solution
Session border controller (SBC) vendor NexTone and security border gateway (SBG) vendor Reef Point, chose VON as the venue to make public a joint venture that integrates the two companies’ technologies in what the partners are calling NextPoint, the world’s first Integrated Border Gateway, or IBG.
The joint solution delivers IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) compliance, offering operators network future-proofing. In fact, the NextPoint is standards-compliant across the board, and thus able to deliver edge-to-edge and global interconnectivity without locking operators into a single vendo.
According to Mark Neider, NexTone senior director if product marketing, immediate benefits of the NextPoint solution include:
- Reduced operating expenditures—with the functional elements of a security gateway, traffic shaper, SBC, and proxy server incorporated into a single solution.
- Advanced border security and scale—thanks to best-of-breed security elements that include transport and signaling layer security combined with NexTone’s industry-leading high performance and scale.
- Real-time service quality for mobile and fixed networks. NextPoint brings real-time quality of service, plus security and session management to both the access side and the trunking area of the network.
