CommuniGate Systems and Voxbone form new partnership to offer VoIP portability for international origination and termination

CommuniGate Pro drives VoIP mobility adoption with roaming termination and raises the bar with business-class origination services.

MILL VALLEY, CA (May 2, 2006) - CommuniGate Systems, the leader in scalable carrier-class Internet Communications solutions, and Voxbone, the leading international provider of VoIP origination services, today announced a partnership to increase portability of IP Communications without restriction to fixed locations. Corporate and consumer subscribers can take their number on the road, and have local “dial-in” and “dial-out” capabilities across 40 countries.

Mobile users of CommuniGate Pro are provided a single address for all IP Communications. This address is in the form of a standard email address such as user@communigate.com and interoperates with many SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)-based clients, with softphones like SJ-Phone, Windows Messenger or Eyebeam, or IP and WiFi phones. Each of these use a SIP identifier", also called AOR (Address of Record), as well as “dialling aliases” that can be simple extensions like 210, or full PSTN numbers that route to the user, like 415-555-1212, for total connectivity to traditional PSTN and mobile phones. This means that users are also provided a traditional phone number as well as being able to send and receive all voice and data IP communications from their single email address.

Since CommuniGate Pro users can register or log onto the server from any location, home or hotel – even behind a firewall with CommuniGate’s built-in NAT traversal functions – the number provides “Follow-me” and “Presence” services anyplace in the world. The CommuniGate Pro server-based software solution enables Service Providers with both Class 4 and Class 5 voice services, delivering end-to-end connectivity and PBX voice and conferencing applications to all subscribers.

For example, a San Francisco-based user can register their softclient on a laptop at a hotel in Paris, and when a client calls the local number, the device rings in Paris. CommuniGate Pro solves the problem of connecting behind firewalls via NAT to dynamically open and close multiple ports, which is required by VoIP signalling protocols for two-way real-time communications. This immediately opens the entire customer base to all the benefits of IP Communications, such as the rapid deployment of new services and voice applications, local presence, reduced costs, and the elimination of complexity through a standards-based and IMS-ready communications platform.

Voxbone is a Voice over IP carrier providing virtual phone numbers from over 40 countries. The service allows users and companies to get access numbers from any of these countries and to receive their incoming calls via SIP. These numbers are registered to the CommuniGate Pro server, no matter where it is located, and then routed to internal users on the PBX. This “origination” capability allows users to establish remote office capabilities around the world.

“For business users, VoIP delivers the flexibility and power of access no matter where they are in the world,” said Rodrigue Ullens, co-founder of Voxbone. “We are pleased to be working with CommuniGate Pro as a battled-tested and Internet-ready communications solution.”

“As the world’s more than 1 billion email accounts are converted to SIP based communications such as VoIP , Video and Instant Messaging, CommuniGate Systems is committed to the development of applications and services that people can use to connect and be reachable anywhere they are,” said Jon Doyle, vice president of business development for CommuniGate Systems. “Our partnership with Voxbone demonstrates that we are enhancing the capabilities of true mobility and portability of communications for the business user, with real and immediate value.”

CommuniGate Pro v5.0 allows subscribers a choice of clients – IP phones, soft clients, traditional telephony, mobile devices, browsers, and IM agents – all through a single account. Traditional telephone numbers are available through PSTN connectivity and ENUM, while CommuniGate Pro 5.0 integrates with IMS media and content through CommuniGate Programming Language (CG/PL) and published APIs, and handles signalling and media for multiple gateways for IP-to-IP, PSTN-to-IP, and PSTN-to-PSTN connectivity. Ultimately, CommuniGate Pro 5.0 provides a single source for email, collaboration, voice/video and mobile Internet Communications.

About Voxbone
Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Voxbone provides worldwide virtual phone numbers and offers a VoIP backbone distributed around two main POPs located in Brussels and New York. The switchless architecture of the Voxbone network enables customers to realize the benefits of IP communications by rapidly deploying new services with local presence and simultaneously reducing costs. Voxbone delivers its services to carriers, Internet telephony service providers (ITSP), calling card operators, call centers, and other businesses around the world. More details on http://www.voxbone.com

About CommuniGate Systems
Founded in 1991 and based in Mill Valley, California, CommuniGate Systems develops carrier-class Unified Communications and media delivery software for broadband and mobile operators to deliver value-added services and SaaS solutions. CommuniGate Systems delivers powerful mashups of Unified Communications technology mixed with media and entertainment applications for portals, social networks, enterprises and mobile communities. CommuniGate Systems is revolutionizing the Unified Communications industry with a unique Flash-based client framework Pronto! bringing together all forms of communication and breaking the leash to the desktop with Web 2.0 mobility.

CommuniGate Systems is the first choice in technology solutions for over 12,000 customers with over 130 million subscribers unifying e-mail, collaboration, IM, presence and VoIP with a single identity. The Unified Communications platform provides flexibility, performance, and scalability with benchmark proven architecture remaining unchallenged in the industry. Our technology powers OEM partner products ranging from embedded real time systems to powerful unified messaging platforms at top tier global network operators. The open development environment's simple APIs deliver extensible flexibility with a unique clustering technology for 99.999% uptime for the most demanding application environments.

The company is a trusted and financially stable vendor, maintaining the highest customer satisfaction levels in the Unified Communications industry with over 175 members in its partner network worldwide.