Voxbone

Voxbone
Private
Industry Cloud communications
Founded 2005
Founder

Rodrigue Ullens, Co-Founder

François Strumann, Co-Founder
Headquarters Brussels, Belgium
Key people
 Itay Rosenfeld, CEO
Stef Konings, CFO
Gaetan Brichet, COO
Dries Plasman, VP of Product Management
Dirk Hermans, VP Research and Development
Anne-Valerie Heuschen, VP Corporate Affairs
Products VoxDID, Vox800, VoxFAX, VoxSMS, and VoxOUT
Number of employees
 90
Website www.voxbone.com

Voxbone is a cloud communications (IaaS) company based in Brussels (Belgium), London (United Kingdom), Los Angeles and San Francisco (California). Voxbone enables telephony applications such as conferencing and contact centers to receive phone calls, text messages and faxes in 55+ countries.[1] The company’s services are accessed through a web portal or REST API.[2] Voxbone services are delivered over a private IP network that interconnects with local phone networks in the countries where it operates.[3]

Voxbone customers include Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, NTT, Level(3), Orange and Skype.[4][5][6]

In 2011, the company launched a “global capacity-sharing model” to tackle the complex tasks and costs associated with planning and managing global voice traffic. Customers are charged according to their peak simultaneous sessions globally (vs. total minute usage per country, or geographical origin of calls, in traditional models).[7]

History

Voxbone was founded in Brussels, Belgium, in 2005 by Rodrigue Ullens and Francois Struman as Voxbone SA/NV.[8] As a consultant for telecom operators, Ullens noticed the growing demand for phone numbers from other countries and decided to create the business.[9] The founders’ mission was to offer simplified access to telephony resources through the cloud.[10]

In August 2015 Vitruvian Partners LLP (“Vitruvian”), a leading independent European private equity firm, announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Voxbone SA.[11]

Services

Voxbone provides local geographical, mobile and toll free phone numbers (commonly known as Direct inward dial numbers), which telecommunication providers or enterprises use to extend the reach of their voice networks to international locations without requiring a local office, network or license for each country.[12] Voxbone also supports local number portability and offers the ability to port existing local telephone numbers from other local service providers to its network.[13][14]

VoxDID - Inbound SIP trunking with local geographic, mobile and non-geographic telephone numbers. These are numbers from the country's regular telephone numbering plan. This service is available from 55+ countries.[15]

Vox800 - Inbound SIP trunking with local toll free numbers. This service is comparable to the International Toll Free Service (ITFS). It does not charge per-minute for the international transport of calls.[16][17]

VoxFAX and VoxSMS - Voxbone’s products for supporting inbound SMS and faxes and fax-to-email on its SIP trunks.[18]

VoxOUT - Voxbone does not offer voice call termination services with the exception of one destination: local emergency numbers (e.g. 112 in Europe or 911 in North America). Offering an end-user the ability to dial 112 or 911 is a regulatory obligation.[19] As voice termination providers offer only the ability to dial regular geographical and mobile numbers, Voxbone introduced this service following requests of their customers.[20]

WebRTC - In May 2014, Voxbone announced the start of a beta phase of a WebRTC service. Voxbone routes WebRTC calls over its global MPLS data network to make WebRTC calls less vulnerable to quality of service issues resulting from the congestion on the public Internet.[21][22]

Applications

Voxbone DID numbers and SIP trunks can be used for different types of solutions:

Cloud PBX and SIP trunking companies get local telephone numbers from Voxbone to make their IP-based voice and unified communications (UC) services reachable from local PSTN networks in many countries. Examples of such companies: 8x8 Inc., ThinkingPhones. [23][24]

Conferencing providers use Voxbone’s local numbers to offer their end users the ability to dial into a conferencing bridge from any country. Examples of such companies: Arkadin, Zoom, Speek, LoopUp. [25][26][27][28]

International calling companies, which offer low-cost international calling solutions, use Voxbone’s services to provide local dial in numbers to their customers. They also reserve call capacity on Voxbone’s VoIP backbone. Examples of such companies: Skype, IDT. [29][30]

Telecom API companies develop communication applications that developers can integrate into their application (ex. a website for appointment booking can integrate SMS reminders and confirmations via these Telecom API providers). Example of such companies: Deutsche Telekom’s Developer Garden, Aculab.[31]

Contact Centers: Multinational Enterprise Contact Centers manage their own Contact Centers use Voxbone’s services to provide local numbers to their customers around the world Cloud Contact Centers integrate Voxbone’s local phone numbers into their solutions to offer outsourcing options. Example of such companies: inContact, LiveOps [32]

International Networks

Several decades ago, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) created two new ranges in the global telephone numbering plan for “International Networks.” International networks are telecommunication services that are not linked in any way to a geographical area; hence +882 and +883 are “country codes” are not linked to any country. +882 numbers are to be used in conjunction with private networks (e.g. global private ATM networks), while +883 numbers are intended for use with public telecommunications networks, such as the Internet.[33][34][35]

Voxbone received the +883 5510 number range in the +883 code from the ITU. With this number range, the company started an “open source”-like initiative where service providers can obtain a sub-range of these numbers and use them for communication between each other without the PSTN. The initiative is called iNum. The service operates on a SIP server, accessible from the Internet, hosted by Voxbone and supports voice, video and text messaging between networks. By the end of 2013, around 100 VoIP service providers had made use of iNum numbers. Google and Skype route calls to iNum numbers from their network as do several wholesale voice termination providers such as iBasis and BICS.[36]

In 2010, the ITU created a new country code for the United Nations. The number range, +888, is intended to be used by the mobile disaster relief forces of the UN, OCHA. Voxbone operates these numbers, on behalf of the United Nations.[37]

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Voxbone Tweaks Its Network for WebRTC". Light reading.
  2. ↑ "No jitter - Going Global with SIP and UC".
  3. ↑ "TMCNet - Speek Selects Voxbone".
  4. ↑ "Skype Number General Terms of Sale". Skype.
  5. ↑ "Voxbone Tweaks Its Network for WebRTC". Light reading.
  6. ↑ "Orange's Libon Goes International via Voxbone". Light reading.
  7. ↑ "Voxbone debuts DID allocation service for call centers". TelUs Consulting services.
  8. ↑ "Fast 50" (PDF). Deloitte.
  9. ↑ http://messagent.roulartamail.be/images/Bizz/2010/leader_of_tomorrow/images/Rodrigue_Ullens_FR.pdf
  10. ↑ http://www.intercomms.net/issue-18/cs-5.html
  11. ↑ "Private Equity Firm Bites on Voxbone". Light Reading.
  12. ↑ "Voxbone Inbound DID SIP Trunking Now Compatible with Microsoft Lync 2013". TMCNet.
  13. ↑ "CommuniGate and Voxbone Partner on Number Portability Using SIP". TMCNet.
  14. ↑ "Wholesale DIDs from 50+ countries worldwide Inbound SIP Trunks and Virtual PRI". RoConnect.
  15. ↑ "Voxbone Inbound DID SIP Trunking Now Compatible with Microsoft Lync 2013". SIP Trunking Report.
  16. ↑ "Voxbone Inbound DID SIP Trunking Now Compatible with Microsoft Lync 2013". SIP Trunking Report.
  17. ↑ "Zoom to Use Voxbone Toll-Free Phone Numbers to Enhance its Cloud Meeting Service". Cloud Call Center.
  18. ↑ "Going Global with SIP and UC". No Jitter.
  19. ↑ "Sprint, Alltel, USC fined for missed e911 deadline". FierceWireless.
  20. ↑ "Emergency Services in the VoIP World". Emergency Communications.
  21. ↑ "Voxbone Promises WebRTC Plus QOS". No Jitter.
  22. ↑ "WebRTC Infrastructure is Tricky". No Jitter.
  23. ↑ Voxbone Promises WebRTC Plus QOS
  24. ↑ "ThinkingPhones extends reach with Voxbone's SIP Trunks". Telecompaper.
  25. ↑ Voxbone to provide global DID numbers to Aculab cloud-based platform
  26. ↑ "Zoom to Use Voxbone Toll-Free Phone Numbers to Enhance its Cloud Meeting Service". Cloud Call Centre Resource.
  27. ↑ Speek Selects Voxbone
  28. ↑ "LoopUp Signs On for Voxbone's Newest Conferencing Service". TMCNet.
  29. ↑ Voxbone Promises WebRTC Plus QOS
  30. ↑ Voxbone to provide global DID numbers to Aculab cloud-based platform
  31. ↑ Voxbone to provide global DID numbers to Aculab cloud-based platform
  32. ↑ Voxbone Promises WebRTC Plus QOS
  33. ↑ International Numbering Resources Database
  34. ↑ Criteria and procedures for the reservation, assignment and reclamation of E.164 country codes and associated identification codes (ICs)
  35. ↑ International Telecommunication Union, Available languages and formats
  36. ↑ The Rise of the iNum (international Number)
  37. ↑ Voxbone To Work with United Nations To Deploy New 888 Country Code For Disaster Relief Efforts
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, January 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.