The international telecommunications company, Colt Technology Services Group, has announced that it is releasing its Cloud Session Border Controller (SBC) in partnership with AudioCodes. This cloud-based voice solution provides Direct Routing as a Service to quickly enable PSTN calls for Microsoft Teams. The Colt Cloud SBC provides an important step towards speeding up and simplifying the implementation of PSTN calling in Teams. With Direct Routing as-a-service, provided by the cloud-based voice solution, users do not require on-premises hardware or hardware in a data center. According to the company, the new service provided more efficiency for both large and small businesses, as onboarding was completed in less than a week. Developed in collaboration with AudioCodes, a leading provider of smart voice networks, this new offering is an extension of Colt’s Intelligent Communications offering that was launched in 2019. The power of Microsoft 365 and Teams, along with Colt’s voice and…
RingCentral, a US-based provider of high-performance cloud communications and collaboration solutions for businesses, has announced a new high-volume and fully integrated SMS service that allows businesses to send SMS messages and updates to their customers promptly and seamlessly. Developers can build custom applications by using the Application Programming Interface (API) that interfaces with RingCentral’s business communication platform. RingCentral also provides a service with pre-built applications that can be obtained from the RingCentral App gallery. By using RingCentral phone numbers for bulk SMS messages, companies can send one-time messages or bundle requests. In addition, the company supports message insights, such as status, logs, storage and analysis for more progressive compliance. The API also permits RingCentral customers to use SMS for services such as mass marketing, automated messaging, customer surveys, chatbots, two-factor authentication and one-time passwords. The API is currently in beta version and available as part of RingCentral’s…
Zoom Video Communications, a provider of video telephony and online chat services, and Lumen, a global enterprise technology platform, have announced that the companies will work together to allow Lumen to offer Zoom as part of its Unified Communications and Collaboration Suite. Lumen will deliver improved services based on Zoom’s video-first UC platform to its global customer base. The partnership will provide greater delivery, customer success and managed services to companies using Zoom, in order to provide a unique business experience when using the services. Lumen will also combine the security of its embedded network with Zoom’s built-in security features to actively protect customers that are using bundled services. This collaboration will give Zoom access to Lumen’s customer base, while Lumen will be able to update its UCC offering with a leading video conferencing platform. In addition, this partnership should help Lumen to better compete with Verizon, which…
Microsoft is expanding in the communications market with the introduction of their Azure Communication Services. This new service is a fully managed communication platform for integrating calls, chats and SMS into business organizations and their applications. Azure Communication Services allows users to develop new communication solutions or integrate them into existing applications, avoiding high costs, complexity, or time wastage. Voice and video calling, as well as chat services will be available immediately, while SMS and phone numbers will be released in October. Over the past few years, Microsoft has gained a wealth of experience in this area, thanks to the large success of their Teams service. Azure Communication Services also uses the same secure platform that runs Microsoft Teams and is built natively on Azure. Scott Van Vliet, corporate vice president for Intelligent Communication at the company, commented: “Azure Communication Services is built natively on top of…
Zoom, the communications technology company that provides video telephony and online chat services through a cloud-based software platform, has announced the expansion of its Zoom Phone coverage. Cloud phone services are now available in 40-plus countries and the company has also simplified the telephone service plan for international companies. Zoom Phone now covers more than 40 countries and territories across Europe, North America, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. The newly added countries and territories to Zoom Phone support are: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia and Slovenia. Under the Global Select plan, a company can employ local calling in more than 40 countries and territories where Zoom provides Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) services, supporting outbound and inbound calls with integrated telephony features that allow…
The Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel has selected Nokia’s CloudBand-based software products to power its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) network. Nokia stated that this network supports more than 110 million customers, making it the largest cloud-based VoLTE network in India and the world’s largest VoLTE service managed by Nokia. According to the Finnish telecom gear maker, the deployment of cloud-based VoLTE will enable Airtel to provide its mobile customers with faster, more reliable and cost-effective call connectivity. Nokia’s solution, which has been deployed to cover all 22 telecom service areas in India, uses commercial, off-the-shelf IT hardware with cloud-based Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Nokia noted that cloud-native VNFs consume far less power and space compared to traditional 2G or 3G circuit-switched legacy cores. With Nokia’s VoLTE platform, Airtel will be able to reduce its 3G network traffic and use the freed-up spectrum to deploy 4G / LTE services for higher speeds…
The Apiary Capital portfolio company Conn3ct, a provider of unified communications, contact center and global network service solutions, has acquired ICR Speech Solutions and Services Limited (ICR), a highly specialized speech application development company involved in interactive voice response (IVR) and next-generation speech bot technology. Conn3ct said that this acquisition is a major event in the company’s strategy, and adds important skills and intellectual property to IVR, which is essential for delivering an optimum call center customer experience. According to a statement, this partnership with ICR will enable Conn3ct to offer a fully automated caller experience, where complex queries are quickly identified and routed to a live agent. IVR is a critical contact center technology that provides the initial response to the calling customers before they reach an agent. Substantial advances in technology and the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning have driven IVR from basic call management to…
An independent news platform Telecoms.com has recently published its Annual Industry Survey 2019, with the main focus being on topics such as industry updates, 5G rollout, digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as the modernization of Operations Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS). The survey, covering the industry landscape over the last 12 months and projecting into 2020, has revealed an optimistic forecast that is mainly supported by the launch of 5G commercial services, innovations and progress in other important areas of the industry. According to the report, the single biggest change in the industry landscape over the past year was the deployment of commercial 5G services in different parts of the world. Regardless of the fact that the best-selling service is high-speed Internet access (mobile and fixed), B2B services, including 5G serving other vertical industries, will undoubtedly play a much more significant role…
CounterPath Corporation, a Canadian software company that delivers Unified Communications (UC) solutions to businesses and service providers, has announced its membership in the Cloud Communications Alliance (CCA). As a peer organization that has a mandate to foster the expansion, availability and adoption of hosted communications services worldwide, the CCA provides a forum for industry leaders to discuss the most relevant topics. Todd Carothers, Chief Revenue Officer at CounterPath, said, “The CCA comprises some of the world’s leading cloud communications experts, vendors and strategists, and CounterPath is thrilled to be joining this fast-growing community. When extending the offer of membership into the organization, the CCA cited CounterPath’s long-term leadership in cloud communications as well as the ongoing technical innovations we have introduced to the market, including our award-winning Bria and Stretto solutions. We look forward to working with the CCA’s leadership team and members to advance the state of the cloud communications…
Global engineering and R&D services company Altran Technologies, SA, mainly operating in the fields of high technology and innovation consultancy, has announced a new advanced networking center in the United States to support customers seeking to accelerate their 5G transition and virtualization deployments. The opening of the company’s new office in Manhattan will involve the hiring of additional experts in the field of 5G and related technologies, as well as the development of new software platforms that will help deliver leading-edge products and services. Pascal Brier, Executive Vice President of Strategy, Technology and Innovation at Altran, said, “The rollout of 5G is a game changer requiring robust, cost-effective software frameworks and platforms to power the next generation of wireless solutions for IoT, mixed-reality and autonomous vehicle applications. Altran is uniquely positioned to provide the necessary consulting and integration services, and this investment will ensure we remain at the absolute…


