The expansion of IP telephony is making it increasingly difficult for traditional service providers to remain competitive. Other communications channels such as SMS and Instant Messaging, mean that profit margins for TDM-based value added telephony services are slowly being eroded. However, the expansion of IP telephony is also presenting many businesses with some exciting new commercial opportunities.
In order to help our customers remain competitive in this changing market, C3 has integrated its IVR Apcentia platform with BT Wholesale’s award winning operability platform “IP Exchange”. This means that our customers can now take full advantage of the lower interconnect costs of an increasingly IP-centric world and launch and develop automated telephony services quickly and cost effectively.
Secure IP Exchanges are important for the growth of VoIP services and following a series of successful trials that began way back in 2007. The GSMA has now given permission to a small number of operators, including BT Wholesale, to provide secure IPX services to third-party organisations.
The integration of Apcentia with IP Exchange gives our customers the ability to handle both inbound and outbound IP and TDM traffic, taking full advantage of cost savings where appropriate, which has resulted in a number of commercial benefits. Larger companies can effectively become “operators” in their own right. All they have to do is request appropriate number ranges from Ofcom and bill the carrier accordingly. Smaller organisations can become virtual network operators (VNOs) and run their services on sub-allocated numbers supplied by BT.
Out payments on IPX services are much more lucrative that those delivered over traditional TDM telephony networks, making the delivery of different VoIP services much more appealing to smaller companies and large organisations alike.
Other benefits of our IPX integrated platforms include the following:
Scalability – allowing customers to start small and expand as their business grows
Competitiveness – smaller organisations can effectively compete against larger network operators, which results in more diverse services that are better value for money
Better connectivity – our IPX integrated products support the industry standard SIP protocol
Greater market share – customers are no longer limited by the availability of E1 circuits neither are they bound by geographical boundaries and can take advantage of global opportunities
Improved efficiency – customers do not have to invest in expensive network cabling in order to launch new services
Increased profits – profit margins for IP originated services are much more lucrative than TDM ones
Says John Wood : “We are really pleased to be given this approval because it will provide commercial benefits to our client base by introducing higher margins to existing applications, while at the same time extending the type and reach of services provided by our customers. It will also encourage entrepreneurs to launch new innovative applications because they can control billing themselves and will be able to see the benefits of their efforts almost immediately. “
As with all C3 products, our new IPX- integrated platforms support multiple communications channels, including SMS, IM, 3G and SIP, in voice and video formats, from one core infrastructure. They also interface with network operator and network independent billing mechanisms and are fully PCI DSS compliant.