Present 1,000 Miles Away –
Without Leaving Your Desk.

First Dixons brought us Freeserve, the start-up business that became the UK’s most popular internet service provider after its launch in 1998. Now it is bringing us Freetalk, what it hopes will be the UK’s most popular internet phone calls business and another significant threat to BT Group’s dominance of the home phone market.

Freeserve had a market value of £8bn at the height of the dot.com boom in 2000 and Dixons, or DSG International as the retail group is now known, made more than £600m from selling the business.

From Thursday, punters will be able to buy Freetalk adapters from PC World, Currys and The Link stores as well as from 50 Dixons stores enabling them to plug their phone into their broadband connection and make free calls. For £79.99, customers can buy a Freetalk package giving them the adapter and a year’s subscription to the service. After that Freetalk costs £6.99 a month for “unlimited UK landline calls”.

Said Simon Turner of DSG International (the new name for Dixons): “This is the most significant development in the telephone market since the launch of the mobile phone and will transform the way we use phones. The days of old-style fixed-line phone calls are numbered.”

Carbon Twelve had been a partner of BroadSoft for the past year, with most of its sales going through BroadSoft’s channel, Tessler said.

“Of our 100 or so customers, 15 are already live with the Carbon Twelve product and more are in trial. We have the advantage of knowing the feedback on the product before we acquired it.”

Tessler said BroadSoft had four customers in Australia: Telstra, AAPT, iiNet and IP System.

BroadSoft also had a sales, support and business development office in Melbourne, the company said.

Seven of the Sydney developer’s team of nine would join BroadSoft and feed their expertise into BroadSoft’s global R&D efforts. The remaining two staff were executives and would not be needed by the new company, Tessler said.

No decision had yet been made on whether the Carbon Twelve brand would continue. “We’re working right now on a plan on how we’re going to integrate the brands,” he said.

Tessler said Carbon Twelve had shown “finesse” in its user interface and approach to developing voice applications for the desktop. Conversely, BroadSoft’s team was “very skilled” in building functionality for large networks.

George Lawson, chief executive at Carbon Twelve, was not available for interview. However, he said in a statement that selling Carbon Twelve “validated” its business strategy.

“[Our] vision has been to invest heavily in developing world-class applications for the BroadWorks platform that have been deployed by service providers around the world,” Lawson said.

“The flexibility of IP allows contact centers to distribute the work to where it makes the most sense, regardless of geographic region, and allows them to quickly react and be proactive regarding changing business conditions, as well as meet regulatory and compliance requirements without compromising customer satisfaction or cost,” said Ralph Breslauer, executive vice president of global sales and marketing, Concerto. “Our focus is to continue providing solutions that enable contact centers to take advantage of those IP capabilities, in an evolutionary fashion, thereby still allowing companies to achieve their strategic business objectives in collections, customer service or sales and telemarketing.”

MediaRing, which was listed in 1999, provides Internet phone call services through a technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP.

This comparatively cheap way of making a phone call is fast becoming popular, with the industry’s significant growth potential acknowledged by U.S. online auctioneer EBay Inc. (EBAY) when it bought Internet-calling startup Skype Technologies for US$2.6 billion earlier this week.

The VOIP industry’s revenue has been growing at 22.5% a year, according to DBS Vickers, and research firm Gartner expects the industry to generate revenue of US$5 billion in 2007.

Kwek didn’t give an earnings forecast, but DBS Vickers Securities said in a recent note that the company is on track to record a net profit of US$3 million for the financial year ending Dec. 31.

MediaRing posted a net loss of about US$400,000 last year, but was profitable in its second half, and again in the first half of its current financial year.

The number of activeuser accounts has almost tripled to 5.4 million over the last 18 months.

Regional Ambitions

With sustained profitability in sight, MediaRing is now looking to expand its presence in Asia.

“We started looking at acquisitions late last year. Our ambition is to become a regional player,” said Kwek, without disclosing which countries are being targeted. She also said the company might expand through joint ventures.

“The company has been riding the wave and the wave is growing so fast we don’t really have great difficulty in expanding,” she said.

Just last week, the company entered the Cambodian market through a joint venture called Cambodia Data Communications Co., or CDC.

MediaRing paid US$200,000 for a 40% stake in the company, while its local partner, Anana Computer Ltd., holds the remaining 60%.

CDC marks MediaRing’s first venture as an Internet service provider. The company sees growth potential here as the country has a low telecommunication penetration rate.

The expansion into Cambodia follows a recent US$15 million fund-raising effort through a placement of 150.33 million new shares to Venture One Finance Ltd.

Including its existing cash holdings, the company has a US$50 million war chest to help fund its expansion through acquisitions and investments in the Asia Pacific region.

MediaRing’s network covers over 200 countries and its internet phone services are distributed through its local resellers and partners. About 75% of revenue comes from the Middle East and Indochina.

Kwek said the company doesn’t expect problems in China where state-owned China Telecom has started blocking access to the Skype service on the grounds it breaches laws and regulations governing Internet telephone calls.

In China, MediaRing’s unit is working through a partnership with state-backed China Netcom.

“So we basically sell VOIP under their branding, but the service is powered by MediaRing,” Kwek said.

(PRWEB) September 14, 2005 — Logical Exchange LLC, the provider of INX Global Internet Phone Service at www.InternationalNumber.com, has expanded its available services for Indian small enterprises and startups to include a wide range of hosted VoIP services. Available over the Internet via broadband and dialup, INX Small Enterprise Services provide local phone services in the U.S. and Canada with all the major features that a company would expect such as voice mail, caller ID, follow me, conferencing and online account management. INX baseline services are available in a matter of hours when ordered online or subscribers can have more sophisticated hosted PBX and small enterprise call center services within a few days.

With competition heating up in India to provide products and services in North America, small enterprises and startups are at a disadvantage in competing with larger, more established companies. One cost effective way is to establish a virtual presence in North America by having a local telephone service there. With INX, Indian companies can make and receive calls just as if they had an office in North America. For example, customers in North America can call a local or toll free phone number and the call will be answered in India for a fraction of the cost for using traditional international communication services. Calls from India are treated the same way – even the Caller ID will show a North American phone number.

INX provides the Indian small enterprise and startup a virtual presence in North America that brings them closer to their customers and substantially reduces their international telecommunications bill up to 80%. Companies can start with just one North American number or they can order more sophisticated products that allow for multiple lines and/or numbers. According to Jon P. Lowry, CEO of Logical Exchange, “Our company is focused on small enterprises and startups outside North America and India is our primary market. Our range of INX services give Indian small enterprises and startups the communications tools they need to compete in the global marketplace with their larger competitors. This is especially critical in the North American market where the stakes are high and the competition is fierce.”

INX is a virtual presence Internet telephone service that targets international markets with a focus on developing countries and cash-based economies. It is available over virtually any Internet connection in the world – broadband and dialup. INX services are available directly to businesses from Logical Exchange’s website or through its growing, local reseller channel. INX accepts major international credit cards, PayPal and its own INXcash two-way PC calling card from local resellers for cash-based sales.

INX’s current offerings include services for both expatriates and business. Local number plans start at $7.95 a month with unlimited local calling and 2.1¢ per minute U.S. and Canadian long-distance calls – one of the lowest rates in the market. International rates vary. Unlimited long-distance service packages include unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada for $19.95 per month for personal use and $39.95 for non-call center business use. U.S. and Canadian toll free 800 number service offers both incoming and outgoing calling. Subscribers can start with just one line and seamlessly expand as their business grows. North American 800 toll free service is $4.95 per month per plus 4.5¢ a minute for incoming 800 calls and 2.1¢ for outgoing calls to the U.S. and Canada. Small enterprise call center services and hosted PBX services are also available. All INX subscribers receive free PC phone software (a $50 retail value), and may use the service within hours of subscribing with their own PC or USB headset and microphone. Or they may use their own SIP-based IP phone, gateway or IP-PBX. Subscribing is risk free with a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Logical Exchange, LLC is an enhanced IP communications service provider, offering a global communications experience with affordable IP-based services. With a foundation of business development, operations, product development and marketing, Logical Exchange, through its International Number Exchange website, provides services worldwide - developing and launching services for telecommunications and the Internet. Please note that INX does not provide emergency, 911 or similar services and is not intended to replace regular, local telephone service in the U.S., Canada or any other country. None of the company’s services are available to subscribers in the U.S. due to FCC regulations.