A decade after the Skype launched its first public beta, the ability to connect video calls as readily as voice calls is becoming table stakes for service providers who are serious about growing their enterprise business. The past week has seen the announcement of two significant video conferencing deals: Broadsoft (BSFT), which delivers unified communication services to 20 of the world’s top 25 service providers, has licensed SPIRIT DSP’s voice and video engine, and AT&T (T) announced a strategic partnership with PolyCom (PLCM) that will bring the PolyCom RealPresence Platform to the AT&T Business Exchange.
BroadSoft’s deal with Russia’s SPIRIT DSP is meant to give its carrier customers a way to launch video calling services under their own brands. “We believe SPIRIT’s global agreement with BroadSoft underscores the growing demand from telecommunications providers around the world to offer HD voice and video communications as part of their service package in an effort to retain and gain new subscribers and reduce churn to OTT players,” said Andrew Sviridenko, chairman of SPIRIT. “With the help of our global partners, SPIRIT engines are the only real alternative to OTT VoIP-products of Google, Skype and Microsoft. SPIRIT engines give carriers a reliable way to rapidly roll-out their own-branded high quality VVoIP communications products.”
SPIRIT’s voice and video engine replaces Google’s voice engine for BroadSoft. The software will enable voice and video calls on desktops as well as mobile devices running iOS, Android, and Windows.
Interoparability between devices and platforms is also a cornerstone for AT&T in its agreement with PolyCom. “AT&T and Polycom’s announcement is a big win for customer choice and interoperability, and it will help accelerate video collaboration as businesses increasingly look to cloud-delivered options,” said Zeus Kerravala, founder of ZK Research. “In addition, this agreement opens new revenue streams and business opportunities for AT&T, and demonstrates the momentum Polycom is having with service providers and in the video cloud market.”
“In the Pervasive Video Era of 2013, people want instant access to others, no matter what device or service they are using,” said Jim Lundy, CEO of Aragon Research. Apparently service providers are getting the picture.
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