Telephony Announced 2008 Innovation Awards

Most Innovative VoIP Service: Paetec is the 2008 Telephony Innovation Award winner for Most Innovative VoIP Service for its SIP Trunking offer.

“PAETEC offers a hosted VoIP service with features that are comparable to competing offers from the RBOCs and other providers,” Whelan said. “Where PAETEC shines against these competitors is in its focus on customer service.”

Most Innovative Security Service: Telesphere Hosted PBX is the winner of the 2008 Telephony Innovation Award for Most Innovative Disaster Recovery Service: “As businesses depend on their voice and data connections more to do core aspects of their work, they are increasingly looking to telecom service providers to help them keep those connections in place during times of natural or manmade disasters,” said Wilson.

Telesphere Hosted PBX Service is a practical application of technology in an innovative manner with real payback to the customers. The example cited in the awards application, of a Tennessee company hit by a tornado and a fire in the same week but without losing a single voice-mail message, is compelling.”

Most Innovative Mobile Applications Service: ChaCha and Phone Fusion tied for the 2008 Telephony Innovation Award winner for Most Innovative Mobile Service.

ChaCha, a mobile search service, allows users to call 1-800-2-CHA-CHA (800-224-2242) or text questions to CHACHA (242-242) on mobile phones and receive answers within minutes. ChaCha guides -- trained and skilled individuals -- use ChaCha's powerful internal search tools to respond to any query. This human interface dramatically expands the types of questions users can ask well beyond simple phone numbers or addresses. The guides utilize powerful tools to search the Web and quickly return a succinct, relevant answer in a text message with a Web reference link.

Fusion Voicemail Plus by PhoneFusion is a free mobile handset application that provides an innovative user interface to visually display, select and listen to voicemail messages. It integrates voicemail messages from multiple voicemail systems into a central location, displaying text headers containing unique identifiers, including true caller ID names. With a simple tap of a button, users can quickly scroll, select and listen to messages in order of choice. The service runs on top of a broadband data offering from a wireless provider.