Lacking killer app, telco app platforms keep evolving

The shortened “app” in killer app stands for application, but for vendors pitching platforms to help developers build voice-enabled services, it might just as well stand for “approach.”

Because as difficult as it has been to find a killer voice-enabled application, voice platform vendors have also had a challenging time finding the right approach to making voice-enabled application development take off.

At this point, we’ve seen a fair number of attempts, from BT’s early Web21C effort to O2’s recent developer program to attempts from a slew of upstarts such as Ribbit, Jaduka, Ifbyphone, Skype and others. Their approaches have ranged from releasing APIs into the wild (based on technologies ranging from Java to Flash to REST) to building closely vetted developer programs to launching developer contests aimed at prodding coders to take a chance (for a cash prize) on working in their environment.

This week, two early voice app platform players are trying new approaches of their own.

BroadSoft, which very early on went the API and marketplace route with its application strategy, announced a new Consumer Experience platform that helps service providers integrate a variety of IP-enabled devices and services using its BroadWorks platform and a single account log-in – from managing their smartphone to controlling their video services to enabling connected home services like security or remote thermostat control.

Meanwhile, Intelepeer, which last year released a voice app platform on top of its voice peering service and a channel-based go-to-market strategy, today debuted a new developer Web site and toolset designed to make its development platform more widely available as a cloud-based service.
Both efforts demonstrate that the telecom application market is still searching for its silver bullet.

BroadSoft emphasized that its new Consumer Experience platform approach complements rather than replaces its earlier API strategy. In fact, services built on its Xtended Web Services platform fit well into its new platform play, said Leslie Ferry, BroadSoft’s vice president of marketing.

BroadSoft earlier this month unveiled the winners of its second developer challenge, saying it had ten times the response in registrations compared to the year before. Among the application winners was myZazu, a portal site through which users can initiate phone calls, SMS, email and text-to-voice transactions, as well as manage their social networks.

BroadSoft’s Consumer Experience platform enables service providers to build a single online account through which their subscribers can manage all of their IP-based communication services, including services they offer as well as those (a mobile offering from a different operator, for instance) that they don’t. The idea is that offering consumers the ability to control, personalize and extend their communications services will be an important service is in its own right as such services become ever more widespread and ubiquitous, said BroadSoft’s Ferry. BroadSoft has already integrated more than 250 partner solutions into the platform, including touch-screen phones from OpenPeak and multimedia services from Movial.

“The long-term goal is to help service providers integrate devices and allow consumers to control their entire home through a single account – setting the security system, checking on your home, viewing the latest news feed or controlling the temperature at the thermostat,” Ferry said. While BroadSoft initially focused mainly on small business partner integration into its voice over IP platform, it has expanded to focus on consumer services and devices.
Although in its early stages, two operators have started testing the Consumer Experience platform: Optimus, a mobile operator in Portugal, which is offering multimedia services using the platform; and ACN, which has used it to build a video phone service.

IntelePeer, meanwhile, is moving its development platform to more of a self-service model.  Released last year, IntelePeer’s AppWorx developer suite is based on Web standards like PHP, XML and REST and also delivers back-end operations, including OSS, billing and managed capabilities delivered from its network as a service. The platform also features IntelePeer’s SuperRegistry service, which provides subscriber management and Telephone Number Mapping (Carrier ENUM) capabilities built into the AppWorx runtime environment.

IntelePeer boasted some big-name partners at launch, including Microsoft and Cisco Systems (via its WebEx division), to help bring its platform to developers. IntelePeer claims to have some telecom service provider customers for its development platform, but declined to name them.

IntelePeer’s new Web site and cloud-based tools makes it easier for developers to get started building voice apps without significant upfront capital costs or risk, said Charles Studt, IntelePeer’s vice president of product management.

“It’s more of a Web, self-service paradigm with tools and support and the ability to deploy and run apps over our hosted infrastructure,” Studt said, adding that this approach complements rather than replaces its more traditional service provider and enterprise sales channels. “It made sense to try to engage these developers in this way rather than through the traditional software sales cycle.”

The new Web site provides developers with the resources to build voice and rich media applications on the IntelePeer AppworX Platform. By registering on the site, developers gain access to a developer forum, SDK tools, application programming interface (API) documentation, example applications, a PHP code library and direct access to the IntelePeer global peering network—plus 500 free voice minutes for testing new voice applications.