European hosted VoIP software firm NetCentrex S.A. has acquired NeoTIP, a vendor of session border controllers and IMS-related software. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
NeoTIP has been one of the leading session border controller companies in Europe, with a number of large carriers as customers. The company also has customers in Latin America, specifically in Brazil and Chile. Both NetCentrex and NeoTIP are spinoffs of Groupe France Telecom, receiving financing from the parent firm.
The acquisition expands that functionality on the NetCentrex platform, which already included NAT traversal and protocol translation. "It gives us more security and quality of service capability for multimedia," says Brian Mahony, vice president of marketing for NetCentrex. "When you get into video, there is a whole magnitude of issues with security and quality of service."
However, more important may be the company's IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) technology, particularly its P-CSCF (proxy call-serving control function), one of the complex specifications within IMS. "It is important to accelerate IMS strategy," says Mahony. "We already are seeing it in every RFP from large carriers, and it has even more traction with the wireline guys rather than mobile."
The NeoTIP product line spanned from large carriers to enterprises, which brings additional capability of interest to NetCentrex, and, indeed most IP Centrex vendors: namely, controls for IP trunking. "You have to negotiate IP [exchanges] carrier to carrier and also for carrier to enterprise," says Mahony. "We see that market [IP trunking] growing aggressively. There is a lot of direct IP trunking to carriers, and that requires a session border controller function to hide topology."
Two other leading session border controller companies have been acquired recently, Jasomi and Kagoor, by Ditech Communications Corp. and Juniper Networks Inc. respectively. "SBCs seem to be getting bought up because it is hard to stand alone and partly because they are very valuable and in almost every large deal today," says Mahony.
The combination of the NetCentrex and NeoTIP product lines already has begun, Mahony says, in part because of interest from significant customers.
