Previewing an era of fully converged communications on multiple devices, Chris Mairs, CTO of softswitch provider MetaSwitch, demonstrated a series of new voice applications today at the company’s partner and customer forum in Las Vegas.
Speaking to an audience largely made up of independent service providers and CLECs, Mairs advised them “to start thinking more about service delivery and applications services as a separate business from the pipes they provide.”
To that end, Mairs showed off a series of new applications in MetaSwitch’s MetaSphere suite that unite multiple devices to provide functions like unified message stores and voice-to-text voice mail displays.
In one application, users can immediately access voice mail from a widget on their personalized iGoogle homepage, listening to the message via one click on their PC.
“The most compelling solutions are created if the widgets have access to network-based services,” explained Mairs, “that allow developers to create experiences that span multiple devices.”
MetaSwitch also debuted applications that allow voice mail notifications to automatically appear on a TV screen, giving the user the ability to read the message in text form and return the call via an onscreen click-to-dial function.
Another application turns an iPhone into a unified remote device that can control other phones, including landlines. From the iPhone apps screen, the user can select a contact and have MetaSphere set up a call and dial the user back on whatever device she chooses, such as a desk phone, and then complete the call to the desired contact.
Pointing out that per-minute voice revenue is essentially dwindling to zero, Mairs argued that both carriers and independent telcos must find ways to combine innovative applications and services into high-value packages that consumers, and businesses, will pay for.
“Innovative devices enable high-value solutions,” he asserted, and “the right delivery vehicle is key.”
Focusing on North America, U.K.-based MetaSwitch has captured 44 percent of the market for Class 5 softswitch replacements. In an earlier presentation, John Lazar – who has been promoted to CEO of the company – said that MetaSwitch would expand its presence in the Latin American market in the coming year. He also said that MetaSwitch has now shipped a total of 919 of its systems to customers, adding more than 300 since the end of 2008. Forecasting for 2009 is difficult, Lazar added: “On the one hand we’re seeing that some of our largest competitors have been significantly weakened, while on the other hand we’ve seen some customer projects delayed.”
