Frost & Sullivan Names NetCentrex's IPlay3 Product of the Year in VoIP Equipment and Network Infrastructure
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2005--Frost & Sullivan will recognize NetCentrex and its IPlay3(TM) solution with the 2005 VoIP Equipment & Network Infrastructure Product of the Year Award at tonight's Excellence in Information & Communications Technologies Awards Banquet.
Application server vendors essentially have two markets to serve -- hosted IP for enterprises (IP Centrex) and residential VoIP for consumers. While competing vendors have focused on the United States and Asia IP enterprise market, NetCentrex opted to build itself up primarily in the European consumer market, with an IP triple play strategy for the U.S. market. NetCentrex's IPlay3 solution has helped the company dominate the residential VoIP platform vendor market on a global basis.
"Although residential VoIP has been a major telecom growth story in 2004, the vast majority of offerings are voice-centric single product offerings that take minimal advantage of what IP truly has to offer," notes Frost & Sullivan VoIP Program Leader Jon Arnold. "Recognizing this, NetCentrex had the vision to develop a more complete IP offering, one that addresses the full range of IP capabilities -- voice, data, and video."
Launched in March 2004, IPlay3 targets the Triple Play opportunity, which enables service providers to offer a much wider range of services than any other VoIP offering. The underlying driver is simple. Voice is quickly becoming a commodity with IP, and service providers need to offer other services to generate profitable revenues.
Thus, IPlay3 is a turnkey solution that allows any broadband service provider to offer a rich mix of IP-based services today. Aside from the standard voice, data, and video services, IPlay3 enables service providers to further customize their IP offerings based on the needs of subscribers, whether it be video mail, home security, or online gaming.
"This is a key strength of NetCentrex's offering -- the open nature and flexibility of IP means that IPlay3 is a viable solution for all types of service providers," says Arnold. "It allows telcos to offer video and transition to VoIP, cable operators to add voice to their data offerings, and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments to seamlessly integrate their IP voice, IP video, and billing services under a single platform."
In order to make this a truly integrated solution, NetCentrex has formed the IPlay3 Consortium with the best-of-breed partners in two key areas -- Envivio for IP video solutions (integrating H.264 and MPEG-4), and Highdeal for real-time billing. To address the Triple Play market, these IP video and billing components have been integrated with NetCentrex's MyCall IP telephony platform.
"No other application server vendor in our research has integrated all of these elements into a turnkey platform, and we feel this gives NetCentrex a competitive advantage, at least in the residential VoIP market," concludes Arnold.
To date, NetCentrex has over 1 million commercially deployed residential lines, all of which are CPE-based and represent paying subscribers. Its competitors may have a stronger presence in the enterprise IP Centrex market, but with key customers such as FastWeb, Equant, France Telecom, and HomeNet/iProvo deploying at a rapid pace, NetCentrex has established itself as the dominant residential VoIP platform vendor.
IPlay3 positions NetCentrex well for continued growth as cable telephony begins to roll out in 2005, especially in the United States. On the telco side, the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) and other carriers are moving to FTTH, and other incumbents are deploying IP through digital subscriber line (DSL). These rollout scenarios bode well for NetCentrex.
The Frost & Sullivan Award for Product of the Year is presented each year to the company that has demonstrated excellence in new products and technologies within its industry. The recipient company has shown innovation by launching a broad line of emerging products and technologies.
Held in Scottsdale, Frost & Sullivan's 2005 Excellence in Information & Communications Technologies Awards Banquet honors world-class companies for outstanding performance and achievements in the information & communications technologies markets. An annual event, the banquet recognizes the quality and merit of distinguished individuals and companies.
About NetCentrex
NetCentrex(TM) develops unique next-generation network (NGN) voice and video solutions that optimize network infrastructure and enable telecom operators and service providers to deliver voice-video-data and fixed-mobile converged services for both the residential and enterprise markets. Solutions include IP telephony, Videotelephony, Triple Play, IP Centrex, voice/video VPN, contact center, and voice and video IVR services. All solutions are built on the NetCentrex SoftSwitch, Media Server and System Management platforms that provide core infrastructure, network connectivity, Class IV services and single point of provisioning. Founded in 1998, NetCentrex has over 40 operator and service provider customers in more than 25 countries.
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company founded in 1961, partners with clients to create value through innovative growth strategies. The foundation of this partnership approach is our Growth Partnership Services platform, whereby we provide industry research, marketing strategies, consulting, and training to our clients to help grow their business. A key benefit that Frost & Sullivan brings to its clients is a global perspective on a broad range of industries, markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. With a client list that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, as well as the investment community, Frost & Sullivan has evolved into one of the premier growth consulting companies in the world. For more information, visit www.frost.com.
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Source: Frost & Sullivan
