GENBAND is offering its customers a lot more than switches these days. The private Dallas-based company says it’s the nation’s leading maker of fixed switching solutions, but CEO Charlie Vogt realizes that carriers need more than good IP infrastructure to help them compete with “over the top” companies like Google and Facebook. That’s one of the reasons GENBAND is teaming up with Canada’s CounterPath Corp. to offer unified communications software to carriers.
GENBAND will integrate its A2 Unified Communications server with CounterPath’s Bria Softphone client. A2 Communications integrates real-time communications like instant messaging, presence updates and voice/video telephony with non-real-time communication like email, voicemail and fax. Carriers can use A2 to offer all these services to subscribers through one interface, and they can use the A2 tools to create custom applications of their own. CounterPath’s award-winning voice over IP solution is a natural complement to A2, and GENBAND says carriers will save by purchasing the integrated product. “This new alliance allows our customers to achieve significant cost savings, add new revenue generating services and increase revenue per subscriber by extending all of the benefits that customers enjoy on their desktops to any device, creating a premium user experience,” Vogt said.
Creating a premium experience that users will pay for is key for wireless operators, who have seen traffic growth outpacing revenue growth. Carriers need to monetize the exploding wireless traffic in order to pay for the network upgrades this traffic will require. GENBAND hopes to be part of both sides of the equation by developing an applications business that will help its customers offer value to the end user while continuing to do a healthy business in IP infrastructure.
The company’s flagship product is its Genius platform, which GENBAND says is the world’s top-selling unified IP switching and networking platform. Genius is a single-chassis, software-rich platform that supports cloud-based and multimedia applications. It is the successor to CS 2000, GENBAND’s award-winning triple-chassis server. The company says Genius changes the game for operators by supporting mulitple operating systems and by making it easy for service providers to add new applications. Operators do not need to buy new cards or blades in order to add GENBAND applications.
GENBAND considers its Genius product “best of breed” but admits that it faces stiff competition from suppliers who offer core products that GENBAND does not sell. Some carriers prefer to purchase much of their networking equipment from a single manufacturer, and this costs GENBAND some business.
At a recent meeting with analysts in New York, Vogt said that his company is talking to institutional investors and might go public within a year.
