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BroadSoft, GENBAND Team Up to Create Best-of-Breed PSTN Replacement Solution

| Jul 2, 2009 | IP Services Infrastructure | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Joe McGarvey

Current Perspective: Slightly Positive
Vendor Importance: Moderate/High
Market Impact: Moderate

Event Summary

June 30, 2009 -- GENBAND and BroadSoft announced a new set of solutions that are designed to enable carriers to upgrade their networks to IP while supporting legacy features. The joint solution includes the G9 and G6 gateways, the C3 Signaling Controller and the S3 SBC from GENBAND paired with the BroadWorks application server from BroadSoft. The joint solution is designed to enable operators to offer four additional services: residential broadband, SIP trunking, hosted PBX and IP peering and transport.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on GENBAND’s pairing of its signaling, security and gateway products with the BroadWorks application server from BroadSoft, as the combination gives both companies a best-of-breed and comprehensive VoIP solution to offer operators around the world. With sales teams from both companies pushing the product and systems integrators – to be named in the future – offering soup-to-nuts solutions based on the combination, the collaboration between BroadSoft and GENBAND significantly exceeds a typical interoperability or reseller relationship. At the same time, GENBAND and BroadSoft’s claim of bringing a unique solution to the market is susceptible to challenges from a number of competitors, such as Sonus, Veraz and MetaSwitch, all of which are free to – and have in the past – paired their carrier VoIP platforms with the BroadWorks application server.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to high to both equipment makers. For BroadSoft, the relationship enables the company to expand its product portfolio beyond standalone application servers, allowing the company to respond to customer requests for comprehensive solutions that involve session control, session management, security and gateway components. The addition of the BroadWorks application server to GENBAND’s switching, gateway and security gear gives the company the opportunity to deliver a PSTN-replacement platform that goes beyond simply offering operators the same TDM features on an IP platform. The availability of multimedia features, which can be delivered to both IP and legacy subscribers, is a considerable value-add over a pure TDM replacement offerings.

• Market Impact: Moderate on competitors in the softswitch, media gateway and Class 5 Alternative markets, as the collaboration between GENBAND and BroadSoft does not introduce a competitive offering that was not available to customers in the past. GENBAND and BroadSoft have not provided any information to suggest that their joint offering, at least initially, provides any additional features or functions that were not available to operators that deployed GENBAND and BroadSoft products in the past. Both companies, in fact, point to an existing co-customer, PAETEC, to provide an endorsement for the joint solution. Most likely to be competitively impacted by the formal partnership is Taqua, a Class 5 replacement switch provider that was once part of the GENBAND fold. Taqua has offered a fusion of its products and BroadWorks – a solution known appropriately enough as TaquaWorks – for more than a year.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

Recommended Competitor Actions

| Client access - Full report in IP Services Infrastructure | More information

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Both existing and potential customers for GENBAND and BroadSoft’s joint offering should require the suppliers to detail how the joint offering differs from independently integrated versions of the portfolios. In addition, customers should require GENBAND/BroadSoft to deliver a roadmap that details how the platforms will be further integrated in the future.

• Operators that are looking to simultaneous replace aging PSTN switches and introduce new multimedia options to both broadband and legacy subscribers should compare the GENBAND/BroadSoft joint solution to competitive legacy switch replacement solutions. Operators that are looking to preserve as much legacy access gear as possible, should start the evaluation with the GENBAND media gateway products that support access-oriented interfaces.

• Existing M6 users must continue to get frequent updates from BroadSoft on the status of the M6 platform. If BroadSoft plans to eventually consolidate its multiple application servers into a single platform, operators should demand to receive details of the potential impact on the future of the M6 platform.