Metaswitch Networks today announced Accession, an application suite that allows service providers to harness the power of multimedia devices and unleash an immersive calling and content-sharing experience that mitigates the threat from over-the-top competitors. By delivering a solution that works across fixed, Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G networks, Accession enables operators to deliver compelling services that fluidly move between whichever device and infrastructure best serves the context of the communications call or session.
Building on standards-compliant telephony application servers, a history of providing advanced carrier infrastructure and last year’s acquisition of Colibria (for RCS/RCS-e technology), Metaswitch’s Accession portfolio can be used to deliver communications services that allow subscribers to share multimedia content, jump between devices, uplift to high definition voice and video and seamlessly move calls in progress between licensed (3G/4G) and unlicensed (Wi-Fi) spectrums. With an advanced new client, Accession Communicator, the user experience can be delivered across multi-vendor PCs, smart phones and tablets, and will simultaneously support multiple identities and phone numbers. The client offers the capability to push calls to and pull calls from other devices, while also integrating a complete content sharing, network address book, presence and messaging environment. In addition, the Accession experience can be extended to include traditional landline and business phones.
“Early momentum in the battle for customer mindshare has been with the handset vendors and app providers,” said Kevin DeNuccio, CEO at Metaswitch. “With Accession, the balance of power swings firmly in favor of the network operator, allowing them to deliver trusted, secure, rich and unique applications around the one true global identity: a telephone number. Accession is very much about timely introduction of these advanced applications – something that we can further accelerate with a managed product offering.”
Accession initially comprises two core product lines. The Accession IMT/IMX (Immersive Multimedia Telephony/eXperience) sits within an operator’s existing network and billing infrastructure, and includes elements for application creation and deployment, service centralization and continuity, media conversion and session border control. Accession MCS (Mobile Content Sharing) is a cloud-based solution that can be quickly branded by service providers to deliver an intuitive content sharing application (in and out of call) for consumers and businesses. Business capabilities provide operators with a rapid path to revenue by enabling their enterprise customers to actively push relevant content (coupons, location, product details, self-help, payments…) directly to the caller’s smartphone or tablet. Both solutions take full advantage of Metaswitch’s leadership in client design, application innovation, service provisioning and scalable session control.
“To remain competitive in the face of new service rollouts by Over-the-top providers (OTTs), service providers must be capable of responding swiftly to market changes that threaten their core communication revenue streams,” said Emeka Obiodu, senior analyst, Telco Strategy, at Ovum. “Solutions that integrate OTT-type services, long-term telco standards and cloud-based services, offer a compelling way for service providers to reassert themselves in the marketplace.”