VON: Broadsoft marketplace brings carriers into Web 2.0 equation

VoIP platform vendor BroadSoft announced at the VON.x show this week a set of APIs and developer programs that will let developers integrate voice into their Web applications, leveraging service provider networks.

Web/voice mashups are gaining attention with a variety of vendors pitching an array of approaches. Fellow carrier VoIP platform vendor Sylantro has pitched mashup APIs; startups like Ribbit, Ifbyphone.com and Lignup are targeting Web/voice integration; Web-click-to-call vendors like Jajah and Jaxtr offer embeddable widgets; and open source approaches like Lypp are gaining adherents.

The BroadSoft Xtended Marketplace initiative is different in that it puts incumbent service providers at the center of the mashup equation since its BroadWorks VoIP platform is used by more than 300 carriers worldwide – including seven of the top 10 carriers including Verizon, Sprint, Korea Telecom, KPN, SingTel and Telefonica de Espana.

Those Tier 1 operators aren’t part of the Xtended Marketplace yet. Supporting carriers today include smaller carriers including ISN Telecom, Vantage and Evolve IP, among others.

However, BroadSoft will be talking to its larger customers in the coming weeks leading up to the marketplace’s official launch at developer.broadsoft.com in early April, said Michael Lauricella, director of Xtended Marketing for BroadSoft.

“You can’t push large telcos; we’re going to try to pull them with this. We’ll get it out there and show them how effective these applications can be, and we anticipate other customers will jump on board,” Lauricella said. “Our initial goal is to make ourselves an attractive target for the developer community. It’s no coincidence we are launching the marketplace first.”

BroadSoft believes a marketplace, especially one seeded with applications and an active developer community, will be appealing to its telco customers.

“Through the developer program, service providers that have bought our carrier-grade voice-over-IP platform from us are now going to have access to a marketplace where developers can build applications that can be added on top of the core platform,” Lauricella said. “If users get hooked on these core widgets, then the carrier’s service becomes even more appealing.”

At the VON show, BroadSoft VoIP calling features integrated with applications including WebEx, Facebook, ACT!, WebEx, Simulscribe and Polycom. Functionality included embedded click-to-call buttons, integrated conferencing, CRM screen-pops, voice-to-text translation and more.

With the BroadSoft Xtended Marketplace, developers come to the site and download APIs and other tools for integrating their Web applications with BroadWorks-enabled call setup/teardown and other advanced voice features. At the site, developers can also see which carriers support the BroadSoft mashup process and specific APIs. Later this spring, BroadSoft plans to add an e-commerce engine to the marketplace to help developers and carriers monetize applications if they choose.

Because BroadSoft works with carriers rather than routing around them, its BroadWorks VoIP platform and new Xtended APIs can work as either a new, loose Web services layer or more tightly integrate with telco IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and service delivery platforms (SDPs), said Lauricella. For instance, the Xtended APIs can run on the Broadworks platform or run in a container on an existing telco Web application server, said Lauricella.

While today the Xtended Marketplace is hosted at BroadSoft.com, Lauricella said the vendor plans to offer an option to let service providers offer their own white label versions of the marketplace.

Carriers worldwide are working on new architectures to enable more rapid service creation, including exposing network functionality to third-parties via open API layers.

Last week BT released CallFlow, an addition to its Web21C APIs that enables integration of core call setup capabilities into third-party applications.

At VON Tuesday, AT&T’s Siroos Afshar, assistant vice president of services core and premises architecture, talked through AT&T’s emerging CARTS (Common Architecture for Real Time Services) platform. In its initial vision, CARTS does not expose third-party APIs, though that could be added later, he said.

“We need to enable [CARTS] to be driven by external [service and application] logic, but that’s not yet a model AT&T is pursuing,” Afshar said. “We’re talking [today] about capabilities of an architecture, not a new business.”

Vendors can view the CARTS architecture today under NDA, Afshar said.