GENBAND Acquires fring, Enhancing Communications-as-a-Service Portfolio with Mobile Consumer Over-the-Top Offering

Frisco, Texas, September 12, 2013 – GENBAND, a leading developer of multimedia and cloud communications solutions, today announced it has acquired fring’s Over-the-Top (OTT) mobile IP communications service, which  works across all major smartphone platforms. The acquisition of the fring consumer multimedia IP communications solutions expands GENBAND’s cloud portfolio for the consumer market. Through an easy-to-use, white-label service that includes capabilities for mobile group video chat, 2-way video chat, voice-only calls and text chat, GENBAND’s integration of the fring solutions empowers service providers and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) to compete with OTT solutions.

“fring is one of the pioneers that helped change the way consumers communicate on-the-go and is perfectly aligned with our strategy  to bring service providers rich, simple-to-use, mobile communications solutions,” said David Walsh, CEO of GENBAND. “The fring team and technology enhance our ability to serve our customer base of over 700 service providers around-the-world, fortifying them with a proven platform they can white-label to bring their own brand of OTT services to subscribers.We look forward to leveraging the full potential of fring’s OTT solutions in the marketplace by pairing them with GENBAND’s cutting-edge cloud and WebRTC offerings.”

fring’s solutions are particularly valuable for fixed service providers and MSOs, providing them with an easy entry into OTT mobile communications services.

GENBAND’s fring solution is also an attractive option for mobile operators and MVNOs, offering them an easy-to-use OTT mobile service of their own to effectively compete with disruptive offerings.  The advanced OTT solution reduces roaming costs for subscribers by moving voice and video sessions away from radio access networks and routing them over the Internet, where interconnection and call completion economics are more attractive.

“Combining fring’s solutions with GENBAND’s global reach, engineering expertise and complementary cloud service offerings changes the game for service providers,” said Roy Timor-Rousso, former CEO of fring and currently a senior executive in GENBAND’s Multimedia Business Unit. “After early successes licensing our solutions to a number of wireless and other carriers, we recognize the power of combining with GENBAND.”

fring’s commercially hardened cloud-based OTT services are easily tailored to service providers’ needs, allowing them to deploy advanced IP communications services with limited effort and low risk. The fring white-label solution for the consumer OTT market segment complements GENBAND’s NUViA™ white-label Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) offering.

Working with GENBAND, service providers can deliver user experiences with fring that are vastly superior to offerings from independent OTT providers. Seamless routing of calls between wireless and IP networks allows users to initiate or receive calls on the device of their choice from anywhere in the world. Leveraging the service provider’s established billing relationship with subscribers, the fring service can be easily added to existing service plans.

“The reality for service providers moving forward is that their relevance is highly dependent on the quality of experience and choices they can deliver to their subscribers,” said Brian Partridge, vice president of Yankee Group Research. “Service providers around the world, and particularly in Europe, where roaming charges are extremely high, must evolve their communications services rapidly to ensure that they stay relevant and competitive against disruptive OTT offerings while complementing and enhancing their existing services.”

For more information on the GENBAND fring OTT solution visit: http://www.genband.com/solutions/smartexperience/fring-ott.

About GENBAND
GENBAND is a global leader in smart networking solutions from the Core to the Edge to the Experience for service providers and enterprises in over 80 countries. The company’s technology improves IP networks by making them more scalable, secure, profitable and efficient. GENBAND’s market-leading technology supports multimedia voice, data and video sessions and fixed-mobile unified communications applications that scale on public and private networks. With a flexible, cloud-ready platform, GENBAND’s IMS, edge and application solutions help its customers compete effectively by increasing revenues, improving profitability, and attracting and retaining customers. To learn more, visit us on the web at www.GENBAND.com.

GENBAND, the GENBAND logo and icon are trademarks of GENBAND.

Company Contact:
Joe McGarvey
GENBAND
+1 (972) 521 5826
joe.mcgarvey@genband.com