Expanding the toolset its MSO and telco partners can offer to business customers, Genband has launched Generation Enterprise, a unified platform that delivers a suite of communications apps, including HD voice, HD video and collaboration tools) across a range of IP-connected devices.
The platform, designed to support IP-connected tablets, smartphones, desk phones and PCs, can also reach across multiple types of networks (wired and wireless, private and public, and TDM and IP), the company said.
Generation Enterprise also bakes in what Genband claims is the first WebRTC-enabled unified communications platform, Smart Office 2.0, a framework that offers hosted, software-based deployment options for businesses, government and university-level customers.
The WebRTC component allows customers to use a standard Web browser to embed the platform’s voice and video tools, rather than requiring separate PC downloads or the loading and installation of discrete applications, Greg Zweig, director of solutions marketing at Genband, said.
Genband matches that capability with its SPiDR WebRTC Gateway, which creates a Web-centric front end, but a backend that looks like a standard part of the SIP network. That means an operator can essentially bolt on a WebRTC front end while still using the legacy infrastructure, Zweig explained.
That, he added, can help MSOs add value to SIP trunking platforms they are pitching to business customers. Among recent examples, Time Warner Business Class launched a SIP trunking product designed to give customers a more cost-effective alternative to traditional TDM-based voice trunk services for commercial clients that use IP PBX gear.
Zwig said some of Genband’s MSO customers are trialing Generation Enterprise, but declined to name them.
Genband, which has established a firm hold on the cable market following the acquisitions of Cedar Point Communications and the VoIP unit of Nortel Networks, has an MSO customer base that includes Comcast, Liberty Global, Charter Communications, Kabel Deutschland, Shaw Communications, Videotron, Rogers Communications and Cox Communications, among others.
