Edge servers get a voice: MediaGate adds universal messaging to its remote access line

As Jonathan Taylor sees it, Internet service providers are stuck with a chicken-and-egg problem. To differentiate themselves, they must offer unique services to users that require significant upfront investments. However, to compete with the big boys such as America Online and the Bell companies, they can't charge customers much more than $20 a month.

"They're caught in this cycle where they collect $19.95 and invest $19.95 in more access hardware," said Taylor, chief technical officer of InterResearch and Development Group. "ISPs want to provide value added services, but they don't necessarily know how to do it. One of the things ISPs need is simplification."

Attempting to address that need, IRDG was recently acquired by MediaGate and will integrate its iPost universal messaging software into MediaGate's remote access server. The result will be the industry's first remote access server that incorporates interactive voice response and universal messaging.

The new EdgeCommander will allow ISPs to expand beyond traditional applications and support enhanced services, including Internet voice. Initially, MediaGate will manufacture three versions of the server-ranging from a 24-port unit designed for remote points of presence to a 384-port box for central office locations.

At the higher-density end, ISPs and carriers could stack multiple units into an eight-foot rack to provide universal messaging for up to 35,000 users, according to Al Wilkes, president of MediaGate. Such a solution, while not currently deployed, would allow the service provider to offer a value-added service while simultaneously acting as an outsourcer to a wide range of corporate clients, particularly smaller customers.

"As more of these services become more sophisticated, corporations won't want to bring them in-house," said Wilkes.

The universal messaging software allows users to retrieve voice, fax and e-mail messages in multiple forms, including through a Web browser. "The big difference with us is we're service provider-based," said Taylor. "Others are based on [Microsoft] Exchange and things like that in the corporate environment. We work with any browser."

The combination of messaging in a traditional network product also represents potential savings for information service managers by combining a traditional networking element with an interactive voice response application, said Nancy Jamison, an analyst with Dataquest. "It's a lower-risk strategy," she said. "If you have everyone fighting for the same dollar, and you can get in under someone else's budget, it's lower risk for the person buying it."

MediaGate, which will continue to offer IRDG's software as a stand-alone product, is positioning the new combination as a low-cost add that opens up multiple applications. "We're selling into budgets that they already have. We've got a box that is apples for apples," said Taylor.

Adding messaging to an edge server also gives a company such as MediaGate a distinctive product when marketing against larger competitors, Jamison added. Especially for telcos, new interactive voice response applications often have longer payback periods than traditional services and are deemed uneconomical before they can be deployed.

"The telcos and service providers are in a weird position," Jamison said, adding that interactive voice response may have a much slower time frame for profitability. Anything that someone like an IRDG can do to make that easier is certainly an advantage to them."

In future releases, MediaGate plans to add modules that may include packaged applications, which can be developed using the company's own digital signal processor technology.

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