A: Both have made acquisitions of companies that specialize in E9-1-1 (Emergency 911) service providers. As reported here, Bandwidth.com has acquired dash Carrier Services for an undisclosed sum of money. It puts the VoIP provider on track to reach $100 million in revenues in 2011. West bought Intrado back in 2006, which was early in its acquisitive path toward becoming a $2 billion company.

Today West Corp. is organized into two major areas of operations. Unified Communications is made up primarily of conferencing services, “hosted collaboration” facilities and outbound alerts and notification. Its Communications services division includes operation of contact centers (with live agents) and “Automated Services,” an umbrella term that lumps Intrado’s E911 services with the speech-enabled IVR offerings of West Interactive (which now includes HollyConnects and Tuvox).

Bandwidth.com is, admittedly, another kind of animal in the Recombinant Communications Genome. Its core operations are “lower in the stack” of communications solutions. Where West might be thought of as an ASP (Application Service Provider) 2.0, Bandwidth.com is primarily an ISP (Internet Service Provider) 2.0, that distinguished itself by being an early entrant into the VoIP (Voice over IP) marketplace. Its Phonebooth.com service was one of the first self-service VoIP products targeting small businesses and bringing low-price enhanced telephony features to any business with Internet access.

The dash acquisition could be transformational to bandwidth.com. It brings an advanced form of location-awareness into Bandwidth.com’s fabric. At one point dash was characterized as a “reseller” of Intrado services, but a company spokesperson tells me that dash has its own, proprietary software, systems and infrastructure for E911. The key components include “address validation” utilities that show 98% accuracy even for calls from “nomadic” (i.e. “mobile”) phones. Its ability to locate callers is not dependent on the static data from the “Master Street Address Guide” (MSAG) that traditional 911 has always depended on. dash also tells me that dash maintains its own files of geographic boundaries for the areas served by individual Public Service Access Points (PSAPS), which are the contact centers where 911 dispatchers work.

With the acquisition, Bandwidth.com strengthens its position as a carriers’ carrier and a key enabler as VoIP carriers continue to compete for a growing share of business, residential and “nomadic” conversations. Incumbent carriers used to shoot down competitive threats from Vonage and its cohort of competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) based on their inability to provide E911 services. Now it is becoming routine for VoIP carriers to have access to emergency services that are qualitatively better than those offered by the incumbents.

dash also offers a full suite of wholesale carrier products and services, such as domestic
and Canadian SIP origination and termination, CNAM (which is Calling Name delivery that supports CallerID), N11, and directory listing services. Bandwidth.com’s customers and go-to-market partners can build some formidable service offerings from these building blocks. That’s what Recombinant Communications (RC) is all about.

Under various code names (including “PineMango” and “Project Hydra”) Digium collected a wish list of features and functions for the next generation of distributed, fault-tolerant and “open” IP-based call processing features and functions and began generating and compiling code to provide the basis of those capabilities. The core technology is based on the Internet Communications Engine (ICE) from ZeroC.com. ICE is a freely distributed set of telephony middleware distributed according to the GNU General Public License (GPL). Therefore, it is ready-made for open source distribution and management.

For its part, Digium is stepping up to the tasks of managing a variety of resources for a developer community aimed at taking the “open source ACD” into new use cases that are global in nature and distributed, while at the same time highly reliable, secure and large-scale. Flexibility will be encouraged by the introduction of a low-level API that obviates the need for either the Asterisk Gateway Interface (AGI) and the Asterisk Management Interface (AMI), each of which evolved “in front of” the original Asterisk code base to paper over some of the deficiencies of the original Asterisk code as it sought to support multiple application instances and handling real-time interactions and transactions.

Use of a low level API enables a broader set of developers, using the programming languages of their choice to build new applications and upload them to “the cloud” where they can be invoked and executed by others. It amounts to a much more capacious and feature-laden way to deploy new communications-enabled applications. At least that’s where things are heading. The evergreen issues, such as general security and the protection of data pumping through the signaling layer, are being sorted out. In the mean time, the system is architected to support “100% test coverage”, which is already an improvement over deployments of standard Asterisk implementations.

Here’s a link to the press release announcing the Asterisk SCF Project. In it Digium spokespeople note that this is definitely not a replacement for the existing Asterisk product (which is in release 1.8 at this time). But it encourages “early adopters” to visit the Asterisk SCF Project Web site to register, download the software and stay abreast of the latest developments.

It was founded in early 2006 to provide an application development environment (of “platform”) that made it easy to add telecom and messaging features to Web pages and Web services. They used a RESTful programming environment (with tools like Flex, Flash, Java, PHP, along with Microsoft’s .Net and Silverlight) to build “recombinant apps” that leverage APIs, including Skype Connect and XMPP (now embedded into GoogleTalk).

The first apps, which were made available right about the time of the acquisition, were Ribbit Mobile (which competed directly with Google Voice, but worked with existing numbers) and Ribbit for Salesforce (which provided a tight integration between Ribbit’s voicemail, text, and call handling capabilities and Salesforce’s cloud-based management of contacts and opportunities).

Word has it (this is where I may be overstating what’s really going on) that BT is taking Ribbit “internal”. That means it is less of an “exposure layer” to enable 3rd party developers or enterprise IT folks to build their own solutions and more of an application manufacturing resource for BT’s personnel to develop and deliver ready-made solutions. Ribbit Mobile, Ribbit for Salesforce and a more recently added “Bring Your Own Network” offering are the pre-fabricated service offerings that shorten the lead-time for BT and carrier partners to deliver features and services that employ Ribbit or BT’s IP-based network. After an encouraging start (purchasing Ribbit two years ago), BT remains pretty much a monolith.

Meanwhile, the move toward higher flexibility and open sourcing of application components and cloud-based resources appears to be accelerating. As I noted in previous posts on this site, Orange is very committed to its “Open Source Mobile Widget Program”, which is arguably more granular and more developer-friendly than the BT/Ribbit “bring-your-own-network” approach.

More reently, IBM, with its “Cloud Service Provider Platform”, is doing its best to help incumbent carriers transform themselves into reliable IP- or cloud-based, service delivery platforms. This represents an opportunity to move ever-closer to role of offering a highly-reliable, capacious and feature-rich “services grid”, which is a construct we strongly urge carriers, system integrators, application developers and enterprise customers to take a long, hard look at.

Ultimately, everyone is getting poised for competition “on the glass.” In the enterprise setting it’s a “battle for the desktop”, where applications and features are presented in portals that include feeds, softphones and most-favored applications. Because “the glass” extends to mobile devices, BT and Ribbit were being far-sighted when they made Ribbit Mobile one of their first commercial offerings.

The latest cohort of RC app developers is dealing with a riddle that has plagued the IVR (interactive voice response) and ASR (automated speech recognition) community dating back to the late 1990s. Enterprise customers say that they want flexible tools and application development environments (ADEs) in order to generate custom solutions that bring competitive advantage. Yet, what they often want is a trusted vendor (or resource) that provides an inventory of pre-fabricated solutions that help them bring new products or services to their customers quickly and reliably.

In the world of speech applications, it’s a lesson that the likes of Apptera, TuVox or Voxify have learned as they morphed into providers of specific applications rather than mere tools providers. I think the enterprise demand for reliable solutions to specific problems is driving demand for custom applications, built from well-understood components and running on rock-solid lower layer network resources. That means BT’s approach (bringing Ribbit in-house) may accomplish both near-term and long-term goals.

Instead, eight months and a Skype IPO later, the “Call Phone” feature dramatizes the truly disruptive nature of Google’s telephony strategy. It’s no surprise at all that the service reached the million call milestone in less than 24 hours. That is just a fraction of the overall call volume on public networks and we all know how quickly people discover “free” ways to carry out communications that cost a nominal fee from alternative service providers (Directory Assistance served as the crash test dummy for the fee-to-free migration pattern).

If Gmail, Google Voice and Google Chat users stay true to form on the Google’s information freeway, we will see steady migration from alternative services like Skype Out and the numerous calling card services that charge pennies per minute. The steady improvement of the “Google App” on mobile phones and integration of Google’s library of applications with Android, Chrome and HTML5 program environments will further lower the barriers for users to stay inside Google while originating (within the confines of North America, at least).

Meanwhile, the steady improvement of voice control carries on, It makes the notion of free, mobile, speech-based search, find and communicate exclusively from Google (perhaps with an assist from Verizon Wireless) a formidable reality.

The Google Voice landing page lists the primary features as “One Number” (for all your phones), “Online Voicemail” (that behaves like email) and “Cheap calls” (which are actually free in the U.S. and Canada). Yet I think that those features are listed in reverse order of importance to folks that are generally unacquainted with VoIP services, call management and the joys of automated transcription of voicemail messages.

Of the dozen of so people I’ve invited to use Google Voice, those of us who use it to make free calls to Canada are the happiest. Most of the others have either not used the service at all, or occasionally give out their “Google Voice” number to people with whom they are carrying out business. After a few months of using the service, most don’t know their Google Voice number by heart (I know I don’t). Recent invitees have been able to pick a vanity number (like ones that include their names) that they find easier memorize.

With cheap calling as the primary reason people register for Google Voice, it is on a collision course with Skype when it comes to growing the user base for enhanced VoIP services. Indeed, it is probably not a coincidence that Skype chose this day to open its waiting list for “Skypekit” a library of software and API’s to help application developers integrate Skype into their offerings for all sorts of devices and mobile platforms.

Stepped up activity surrounding Google Voice and Skype will lead other “cloud based” telephony platforms (like IfByPhone and Bandwidth.com, among others) to step up their game. Thus the second half of 2010 should emerge as a golden age for phone apps. With newbies entering the market both as customers and as application developers, the best counsel I can provide is to say (as I have in the past), “The difference between a brilliant phone app and a stupid phone trick is the attention paid to the quality of the user experience.”

Beside, the ability to originate a phone call (or even a video chat) from “inside” an email client is a candidate for the “most demo’d” feature for the “Unified Communications” suites from Microsoft, IBM, Avaya and a handful of others. According to the “Google Operating System” blog post, Gmail users will be able to click on a “phone icon” which will open a “chat client” that includes a dialpad for originating a phone call. It will also illustrate the credit balance a Google Voice user has on his or her account. For those of us who have used Google Voice on an iPhone, the similarities sound pretty striking. You are presented with a landing page that features the keypad, but also provides one-touch access to Buzz, Gmail and “more”. The keypad captures digits and then initiates a a call that that ultimately goes over the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). It’s pretty slick, and ultimately transparent to the user (except that a dialog box appears to say that it is originating a call from some third party’s number.

These are by-no-means “stupid phone tricks.” Google is making its point that “voice services” are an integral part of Web-based offerings and that the Web extends from desktops to smartphones to POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) on a natural, as needed, basis.

Those 2010 figures were spurred in no small part by growth in sales of its “cloud-based” offerings, marketed as CaaS. Product Manager Roe Jones told us that 25% of the dollar volume in new orders was driven by CaaS contracts. He added that from 2008 to 2009 CaaS revenues grew 59%. It is no surprise that InIn could make the transition to cloud-based services so quickly, when compared with its largely premises-based rivals. From its beginnings, InIn’s offerings amounted to the application of a “private IP-based cloud” for its existing clients. Once customers built confidence in IP-based VoIP transport, the transition to distributed (or cloud-based) implementations was just a matter of time.

That said, InIn’s packaging of CaaS, specifically its “Local Control VoIP” approach, represents good product positioning. It is able to capture “pull” in the form of enterprise customer demand for “hosted” or “managed” services that have the potential to eliminate capital expenses, reduce operating expense and staffing needs without sacrificing reliability or business continuity. It is doing so without a radical alteration in its long-standing technological approach, which has been software based and data center driven.

The CaaS approach moves the Data Center (which houses application logic and communicates with premises-based resources over SIP Signaling) into “The Cloud” where it communicates over MPLS-based data or signaling links with enterprise, premises-based resources. Those resources include a Media Server and SIP Proxy, agent workstations and the corporate database (which could be moved to The Cloud if desired). The voice path is entirely premises based, allowing for greater security, as well as the ability to store and analyze voice files for compliance purposes.

InIn is holding the Spring tour to announce three new features (which will be available “late Q2 or early Q3), which differentiate the CaaS offering. The CaaS portal is a Web page which serves administrative functions, like displaying billing summaries and details, as well as enabling the ability to make moves, adds and changes. In the coming months InIn will add call monitoring and access to an archive of voice files to the mix, making it a very robust supervisor portal. More features are coming as the company pursues its cloud-based destiny.

A second, new feature of CaaS is browser-based Work Force Management (WFM). It provides mechanisms for scheduling and managing relatively large contact center staffs. InIn calls the third feature “Agentless Dialing”, but Opus Research has long called the sorts of services offered “intelligent notification”. This software supports automated, outbound messaging for alerts, appointment or payment reminders or other “updates” that comprise customer service strategies. The application also enables called parties to be put in touch with a live agent should that become necessary in the course of a call.

As mentioned above, InIn its roll-out strategy, thus far, can be considered a success. Its timing is great and its product architecture and sales strategy has been largely friction free for prospective implementers. The services are offered on a per user/per month basis with a price that ranges from $65 to $200 depending on volume levels and features that are included. As the new services come on line in the coming months, we would expect revenue growth to accelerate. But growth could be tempered as non-traditional competitors from the cloud-based community – think Voxeo, Salesforce.com, Amazon.com and even Google along with telephony partners – aim their sights (and sites) on the “next generation” customer care services, which are destined to support more social networking and mobile interactions.

Google will likely build out its VoIP offering (Google Voice) to become a full-blown competitor to Skype and conventional telcos/carriers. However, it already has the capability given its previous Gizmo5 acquisition. GIPS will add video and more muscle to the mix, giving Google some new enterprise tools for Apps and maybe Wave (or whatever Wave evolves into).

One of the drivers for recombinant communications is that consumers and businesses alike continue to gravitate towards the cheapest and most convenient communications channels. The addition of Google as a voice and videoconferencing service only accelerates this trend and offers new choices for consumers and enterprises.

Dan Miller, senior analyst with Opus Research, notes GIPS’ raison d’etre, from its inception, was to provide focus on a high-quality user experience. The GIPS voice codec was the secret sauce that made sound quality exceptionally good on Skype’s early VoIP offering, primarily for PC-to-PC communications. Looking ahead, with network speeds getting faster and Google’s cloud becoming ever-more capacious, GIPS can help focus on both sound and video quality for real-time communications and streaming across broad range of Google services and an unpredictable set of endpoints or devices. High levels of sound quality and reliability helped Skype maintain popularity among end-users even though it is a highly proprietary system in the increasingly “open” and “standards-based world” of RC (Recombinant Communications).

At the time, Cisco noted that versions of the client would be out “soon” for both the Blackberry and for the Nokia E-Series handsets. The corporate call for a Blackberry-based solution is obvious. MVS 5 provides IT departments with the mechanism to manage calling plans, security settings and PBX-like features to their Blackberry-toting employees. That can lead to toll savings and greater confidence in the security and privacy over wireless links. Cisco has also been adding a number of bells-and-whistles to its fixed-to-mobile offering, most notably a protocol for “call preservation” which assures that users can quickly restore a call should it be interrupted by lost connectivity or a move from a mobile phone to a fixed-line or extension.

Cisco and RIM have been offering similar features to corporate customers in Europe for about a year and many of the features represent a new packaging of capabilites that RIM brought in-house with the purchase of Ascendent Systems in 2006. MVS 5 will be formally available “later this year.” As noted in our February post, clients for Android and even Windows Phone are not far behind.

Unified Communications, iPhone apps and dashboards for enterprise VoIP are slipping into the category of “commodity.” What caught the eye of the digirati was a Facebook app called 8×8 Connect, which was introduced on the second day of the ITExpo. Here’s where Om Malik invites readers of GigaOm to “Call Me via VoIP on Facebook. In the article, Om conducts a test drive of the new service (which can be accessed and launched here). Om notes that the service “could be especially helpful for small business owners and consultants, who could use it as a way to generate interest in the products/services they’re selling.”

Om also mentions that it could be improved by making it “more personal.” His example would be to allow users to upload their own picture, avatar or brand so that it can be displayed with the user’s phone number (I’d call this part of the movement toward better Caller ID). He also sees advantages to being able to embed the “Call Me” button on a company or individual’s “fan pages.”

My trial went a little differently. I followed the link from GigaOm to the “8×8 Connect” page on Facebook. Then things started to go awry. Being the unintentional demo breaker that I am, I accidentally mis-typed my email address and (probably because my proper name is much more than “Om Malik”) my “8×8 Connect” record and registration form is associated with another Dan Miller, who had been there before me and entered a different mailing address and a bogus phone number. Needless to say, I lost confidence in going any further and removed the app from my Facebook account. After doing so, I went back into the app to see if I could “fix” my mistake, but the record of my evil twin seems to be persistent.

I applaud 8×8’s effort to add click-to-call to social networking and hope this registration “bug” is just that – a fixable bug. However, one of the major challenges faced by solutions providers in the era of Recombinant Communications is to continue to introduce a steady stream of innovative services, but they need to do a better job of testing such services. Alternatively, they could just “do a Google” by calling every new offering a “beta.”