In other news, Vonage reaches mobile-services milestones
Today, we’ll highlight two announcements in the news from Orange Business Services on its telepresence services, along with an update from Vonage on its success and plans with mobility.
In our top story, Orange Business Services, the France Telecom-Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, has introduced a cloud-based telepresence service called Telepresence Pass. The service provides fully managed end-to-end quality guarantees, and is priced on a monthly subscription fee. As with other cloud-based services, Telepresence Pass customers do not need to make significant equipment investments.
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Commenting in a statement, Vivek Badrinath, Orange Business Services CEO, said “Our ambition is to make video available to enterprises wherever they are, with no limitations,”
Nicolas Roy, head of Network Solutions Business Unit, Orange Business Services, also commented, saying, “Of all applications, video is probably the most unforgiving. The Group continues to invest approximately €750 million per year for international network backbone and related IT infrastructure to ensure the coverage, bandwidth and quality required for an excellent video experience.”
In a related announcement, Orange also disclosed that it now offers telepresence interoperability with Verizon Enterprise Solutions. Prior to the arrangement with Verizon, Orange already had telepresence interoperability agreements with AT&T, BT, Tata and Telefonica, while Verizon had agreements with BT, Cisco, Orange and Tata.
In other news, Vonage announced two milestones that highlight its progress with mobile services. The Vonage Mobile app, which lets users make free calls and send free texts around the world via Wi-Fi, has surpassed the 1 million download mark; the app launched in February 2012.
Vonage also disclosed that more than half a million Vonage customers have signed up for Vonage Extensions, allowing users to make calls from their mobile phones for the same rate as their Vonage calling plan. According to Vonage, more than 15% of its international calling minutes now originate from mobile devices. Vonage also announced plans for new features that will include MMS, Bluetooth functionality and low-cost international roaming capability, with more details on these services coming once the features are launched.
