Metaswitch Forum 2010 upcoming 5/17 -5/20

At Aastra we spend a lot of time and money on inter-opt testing with the leading SIP Call Control platforms; whether those platforms are premised based or hosted. One of our key relationships is with Metawitch.

For those who do not know Metaswitch they are a UK based company with a large base of USA customers. They focus on products sold to Carriers which include a “broad range of telephony application server and switching products which are building out next-generation voice networks, modernizing legacy voice networks or deploying new voice applications”.

They sell soft switch technology and within that product sector have a solution called MetaSphere which among other things provides a Hosted PBX (or Hosted VoIP) solution set. Within this product sector their biggest competitor would probably be Broadsoft.

I have been attending the Metaswitch forum for 4 years now and I have watched the event grow over time. This year it’s at the Opryland Hotel and Nashville and will surely be the largest conference they have had thus far. Metaswitch is well established with many ILECs and CLECs in the USA who use them as a soft switch to off loading their TDM traffic.

As these same companies start looking at Hosted VoIP, the option to overlay the MetaSphere hosted pbx option is compelling as Metaswitch has a trusted relationship in place already. This seamless migration is a major advantage over the competition.

So what’s the attraction for the Carrier to Hosted VoIP?

Well most tell the same story.

They have offered T1 / broadband services for years and Hosted VoIP centrex is a serious growth opportunity for them.

Why?

Well it’s the math. If the typical T1 service is $500 per month (and falling in most markets) and let’s say the average size customer has 15 employees, if the service provider can attract the customer to a Hosted VoIP Centrex solution the billing revenue could increase more than double.

There are surely challenges for the Carrier to accomplish this like owning the issues with the customer to the desk top (including the LAN). But for those Carriers with the right go to market plan this new opportunity can be very compelling.