BT trials corporate 'Skype'

Ribbit technology gives multinationals Skype-type functions backed by quality of service and service-level agreements

BT trials Ribbit-based corporate 'Skype'

BT is to incorporate its Ribbittechnology, acquired nearly two years ago, into its corporate voice comms system BT Onevoice, thereby giving corporate users the opportunity to benefit from significant cost savings on call plans.

It claims that this will be the first time a company has offered a Skype/Google Voice-type service to corporate users.

The UK incumbent also said that two US-based multinationals will start to beta trial the technology, called Onevoice Ribbit version 1.0.

A full service will be available globally via BT Onevoice by the end of 2010.

Neil Sutton, BT Global Services global portfolio vice president, said that delivering Ribbit to Onevoice customers would see them move towards unified communications and accelerate the adoption of desktop comms applications.

The benefit for multinationals would be added flexibility and cost savings on call plans. "This offering will make users' lives significantly simpler while enabling the organisation to spend less," added Sutton.

BT acquired Silicon Valley-based Ribbit in July 2008 for $105m (£73m) in cash. Ribbit's platform allows the creation of IP-based voice applications which run over the internet.

Quocirca comms analyst Rob Bamforth said: "Given some of the occasional problems with Skype, this will be welcomed by many businesses."

A spokesperson from BT argued that the services were quite different, however: "Skye-type services are more peer-to-peer and utilise public infrastructure. This is traditional business network combined with new-wave, software-based telephony where voice is an embedded application."

BT said Ribbit Onevoice would include a softphone, giving users access to a range of advanced call features for any BT Onevoice on-net number, according to their corporate dial plan."

BT has said that the costs of mobile and hotel phone calls would be a fraction of those normally incurred when calling from the softphone.

The user’s "One Number" can also be directed to multiple end points or devices which can be moved or changed easily, so they can be reached and even ring simultaneously.

Onevoice Ribbit v1.0 offers a self-service portal allowing users to administer the service themselves. This will see them configure their devices and set up their call-forwarding rules, conference speed dials and speed-dial favourites.

Users can also view call logs, manage passwords and voicemail. The service includes speech-to-text transcriptions sent as text to email or SMS, and the recording is attached to emails so users can listen to the voicemail.

BT will run Ribbit over its backbone network and softswitch infrastructure, layering in quality of service, backed by service-level agreements.

"Ribbit looks like it might help IT/comms managers bring some informal VoIP use back into the formal corporate umbrella," said Bamforth.

"Rather than a Skype killer, I see it as more of a leash. Some users will still like to use Skype occasionally as they will have stored their contacts with the service, but this gives IT/comms managers an alternative with the sort of guarantees and features businesses like," added Bamforth.