This Month in Telecom: September 2018

This Month in Telecom is a monthly news round-up on VoipReview.org that aims to give our readers a fast and easy way to catch up on the latest news and top stories that are trending in the voice and telecommunications space. Check in each and every month to find out more about stories you may have missed in regards to new companies, mergers, trends, and other telecom advancements.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories in telecom for the month of September.

Tango Networks Unveils Industry's First Cloud-Powered Enterprise Mobility Solution

Tango Networks, a trusted provider of business communication services and technologies, continues to transform mobile enterprise communications with the launch of Kinetic Cloud, the industry’s first cloud-powered enterprise mobility solution.

Kinetic Cloud is a communications control service that mobile-enables an organization’s existing enterprise communications, compliance, and business application systems. Its key capabilities include rich UC on any employee's mobile phone, automatic recording of mobile voice and text messaging, automatic logging of mobile calls and texts in critical business applications, separation of work and personal communications, and centrally enforced safety policies.

Andrew Bale, General Manager of Cloud Services for Tango Networks, shares that with Kinetic Cloud, enterprises IT now has “unparalleled control over many separate communications and application domains.” “This means enterprise IT now can see and manage mobile communications in the same way it controls the rest of the IT stack,” he said.

Kinetic Cloud was launched earlier this year in Europe, and is now signing up North American customers for the service.

AT&T and RingCentral Team Up to Deliver Cloud Communications and Collaboration Solutions to Enterprises

AT&T (NYSE:T), the nation’s largest network, and RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE:RNG), a leading global provider of enterprise cloud communications and collaboration solutions, have strengthened their partnership to enable more enterprises to take advantage of feature-rich cloud-based communications services.

RingCentral and AT&T make it possible for people to collaborate more easily than ever before with AT&T Office@Hand, a highly secure, cost-effective, cloud-based IP business communication service, based on the global, RingCentral Office® platform. AT&T Office@Hand allows employees and teams to work and collaborate from virtually anywhere, with its mobile-first voice, video, conferencing, messaging, and team collaboration capabilities.

Vlad Shmunis, Founder and the Chairman and CEO of RingCentral, said that through AT&T Office@Hand and RingCentral’s innovative cloud communications and collaboration solutions, he is positive that more businesses will be able to communicate more effectively internally and externally. “Now, AT&T’s business customers will have broad access to RingCentral’s industry leading technology for greater business outcomes,” said Shmunis.

Yeaster Launches Linkus Unified Communications App

Yeastar, a leader in the design and development of innovative telecommunications equipment, is empowering businesses to enjoy a better communications experience with the official release of its new Linkus Unified Communications Application.

Linkus adds UC&C capabilities to Yeastar’s S-Series VoIP PBX and Cloud PBX through both Windows desktops and iOS and Android smartphones. It delivers Presence, Instant Messaging, CRM integration, and other advanced call handling features to help business professionals achieve greater productivity. Yeastar has also improved the call quality, reliability, and the user interface and and design of Linkus since its beta release two months ago.

Alan Shen, CEO of Yeastar, said that by offering enhancements to Linkus and enabling its coordination with the company’s premises-based and cloud-based phone systems, Yeastar is aiming to expand its footprints in UC and showcase brand-new options for service providers and telecom resellers. “We make it our mission to enable our partners to shape their competitive edges with cutting-edge products and solutions,” said Shen.

Masergy Introduces Secure Hybrid Networking for Enterprises

Trusted managed networking and cloud services provider Masergy continues to redefine enterprise networking with its latest offering, Masergy Secure Hybrid Networking.

An evolution of Masergy’s leading network and security solutions, Secure Hybrid Networking aims to help global enterprises accelerate digital transformation. It features an integrated secure architecture, full event visibility and correlation, and advanced automation. In addition, enterprises also benefit from the solution’s simplicity and agility, as well as lower costs.

CounterPath Offers New Team Collaboration Solution for SMBs

For small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to improve their operations and realize better productivity, CounterPath, a global provider of award-winning Unified Communications solutions, has a new offering: Bria Teams.

Specifically designed for SMBs, Bria Teams is a powerful platform loaded with team communications and collaboration tools to enable teams of all sizes to communicate, collaborate, and get work done faster and more efficiently. This subscription-based offering comes with features such as secure team messaging, presence, HD voice and video calling, and screen sharing on up to three devices per user.

Todd Carothers, EVP of Sales and Marketing at CounterPath, expressed his excitement over their latest product, saying “We are thrilled to announce that Bria Teams is now available for SMBs who are looking for an easy to deploy business communications and collaboration solution to help improve processes and increase productivity.” Carothers also added that the will be introducing more features for Bria Teams in the future, such as Chat Rooms and integration with tools like Salesforce, Google G-Suite, Dropbox, and much more.

Vonage Acquires NewVoiceMedia

It seems like VoIP pioneer and cloud communications giant Vonage is on a consolidation spree as it recently announced that it will be acquiring NewVoiceMedia, an industry-leading cloud Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS) provider.

Vonage is buying the company for a whopping equity price of $350 million paid in cash, which according to the company, represents approximately 3.8x of the projected 2019 revenue of NewVoiceMedia.

The move is set to add further Vonage’s muscle in the enterprise market as it merges Vonage's robust UCaaS and CPaaS solutions with NewVoiceMedia's pure-play cloud contact center offerings. It also allows Vonage to expand their integrations and market relationships with CRM providers, especially Salesforce.com.

Vonage CEO Alan Masarek expressed his enthusiasm over their latest acquisition, saying, "We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of NewVoiceMedia, which represents a major step forward in the realization of our strategic vision to deliver a differentiated, fully-programmable communications solution that drives more meaningful customer interactions and better outcomes for businesses.”

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to standard regulatory review and customary closing conditions.