Pingtel

The Fallen - Crashed and struggling VoIP companies

Doug Mohney — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:20:01 -0500

While I compiled the 2008 VoIP Fierce 15, I looked back at previous Fierce 15 lists. SunRocket was a member of the 2006 VoIP Fierce 15, and this got me thinking about the many companies that have crashed and burned over the past few years -- plus those that seem to chronically struggle.

Numerous companies rushed into the VoIP world with expectations of changing the world. Most showed great potential at first, winning vital acclaim in the media, throngs of admirers and predictions of greatness.

And yet, at some point in time, fortunes change. Acclaim turns to scorn, devotees turn to embittered critics and dreams become crushed by the real-world.

For some, it was a failure of execution. Others held onto their vision for too long, letting it grow stale and stagnate, becoming a me-too player, rather than an innovator.

Still others overreached, tried to be too much too soon, too fast, and burned out. Plus you have a couple with notably shady characters in their past and shaky business models that never made a dime.

Did we leave anyone out?

- Doug

OnRelay embraces open source - with a surprise

Doug Mohney — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:21:04 -0400

OnRelay's IP PBX/mobile UC solution has moved to an open source platform and will be offered as a lower-cost hosted product. The company's use of sipX is an interesting surprise and likely to give warm fuzzies to Nortel, which bought sipX parent Pingtel less than a month ago.

In an interview earlier this week, CEO Ivar Plahte said the new platform allows OnRelay to offer its product at an affordable price points to the small to medium-sized enterprise. "The weakness of the IP Centrex model is that it's too cookie cutter," he said. "We can be the mobile PBX rather than the IP PBX."

OnRelay's MBX product is essentially a PBX for mobile phones, using a patented solution to autonomously route all incoming and outgoing mobile calls through an office phone system (hosted or managed). Plahte said that MBX can also incorporate desktop phones into its service, but his personal prejudice is to an all-mobile environment.

The new open source-based hosted MBX product is at a price point where a smaller service provider or an Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) could simply throw a 1U appliance in a rack and start offering a PBX solution to a group of mobile users. "We think there's an opportunity for more lightweight, next gen telcos," Plahte said. "The model is more of an internet type. With a low entry cost, [a service provider] can put up a Linux server for the first customer, then continue to build customers."

OnRelay started reviewing options for a lower cost solution over a year ago, including Microsoft OCS and sipX. "We looked at [sipX] very carefully," Plathe stated. "It's a good piece of software, we had few problems integrating to it."

Plathe also discussed the implications of Nortel owning the Pingtel development team and controlling the future of sipX. "It's a double-edged sword in a way," said Plathe. "There's a benefit, a serious commitment, serious R&D on open source. Nortel continues to support open source platforms...The risk is Nortel starts acting like Nortel again, an anti-partner, very closed, very telco, Bellhead organization." Still, Plathe believes that Nortel will continue to embrace open source and move the sipX platform forward.

For more:
- OnRelay embraces open source. Release

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UC on deck for new Mets park

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:04:47 -0400

Wi-Fi coverage and wireless ticket scanning are becoming increasingly common at sports stadiums, especially the newest arenas built within the last few year. Now, Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets after they finish their last season in Shea Stadium this year, will have all that plus unified communications applications supported by Nortel Networks. The team's data center operations were recently moved from Shea to the new ballpark next door, and about 200 team employees are getting access to UC features such as voicemail and fax conversion to e-mail, flexible conferencing and VoIP.

Many of the team's ticket agents will be using VoIP gear for ticket sales, though the organization also will keep some agents on circuit-switched facilities as a back-up to VoIP. The Wi-Fi gear, also supplied by Nortel, also will allow concession orders to be placed by fans from their seats. Curiously, it doesn't look like the crosstown Yankees have said much about telecom-related amenities going into their new stadium. Maybe that money went toward A-Rod's salary.

For more:
- see this story at Computerworld

Nortel Buys Pingtel

Doug Mohney — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:36:36 -0400

Nortel has bought Pingtel, a subsidiary of enterprise mobility firm Bluesocket. The open source IP PBX software/appliance division will hopefully have better luck moving forward.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but Nortel will acquire the key assets of Pingtel from Bluesocket, Pingtel's existing OEM relationship with Nortel will be brought in house and Pingtel employees will be integrated into Nortel's Billerica, Mass. facility. Pingtel and Nortel have been working together for a while on SIP-based enterprise solutions.

For the self-described "software-centric" Nortel, the acquisition adds to the company's R&D and software development capabilities. The new software capabilities are expected to help Nortel deliver unified communications solutions to enterprise customers in all segments. In the near term, Pingtel software pieces will appear on Nortel's SMB unified communications solution.

Pingtel's sipX open source IP PBX software is highly regarded for its ability to scale to support up to 10,000 users; as an independent entity, Pingtel landed Amazon.com as its largest publicly announced customer. The Amazon.com installation reportedly supports over 5,000 users in a high-availability configuration.

However, Pingtel's business history has been irregular. The company started out as an IP phone manufacturer, before ditching hardware to focus on software and sipX development. In 2007, the company actively sought a buyer, with Bluesocket finally acquiring them in July 2007.

For more:
- Nortel buys Pingtel announcement

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