The market for Asterisk (News - Alert)-based telecommunication solutions has improved drastically over the last few years.
In the past, most SMBs and large enterprises were only interested in PBX systems that were developed by one of the larger manufacturers. Today, businesses of all sizes are adopting Asterisk and other open source telephony solutions with great frequency.
The widespread acceptance of Asterisk is primarily due to low costs, improved flexibility and the established reputation of open source products, said Juan Carlos Castaneda, president of Bellvoz, an international telecommunications services provider.
TMC (News - Alert) CEO Rich Tehrani recently conducted an exclusive interview with Castaneda, whose company offers a range of Asterisk-based telecommunication solutions. During their talk, Castaneda walked Tehrani through the benefits of open source adoption, the eventual barriers to the continued growth of Asterisk and the effect that Google’s (News - Alert) Android mobile platform has had on the telecom space.
Castaneda will be a keynote presenter at AstriCon 2010, the world's premier Asterisk user conference and expo. AstriCon will kick off on Oct. 26, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. BellVoz will be presenting at booth 322.
The complete interview can be found below.
Rich Tehrani (News - Alert): How has the Asterisk market changed over the past year?
Juan Carlos Castaneda: We believe that there is now a greater acceptance of commercial grade Asterisks in the general commercial market that, in the past, would only be looking at PBX systems from the major manufacturers.
RT: What influence has open source had on the overall communications space over the past 12 months from a product and/or competitive perspective.
JCC: There is far greater acceptance of open source throughout the economy because there is a greater comfort with many open source products just “working,” and that support is available through commercial sources that are effective.
RT: Is open source still primarily an SMB phenomenon or has it seen increased acceptance in the large enterprise space?
JCC: Larger enterprises may have been a little slow to embrace open source telephony but the flexibility and availability of 3rd party applications more than the low cost is driving much greater interest in that segment.
RT: What has been the key driver of open source adoption?
JCC: Our market is in Latin America and the southeast U.S. We see the Latin American market to be more cost driven, while the U.S. market is being driven by both costs and flexibility.
RT: What barriers remain to the continued growth of Asterisk and open source?
JCC: We believe that time is the key. The time necessary for the slower adopters to get comfortable with the development model, the support model and the economic model associated with Asterisk and open source in general.
RT: Has the success of Google’s android mobile platform helped increase awareness and interest in open source?
JCC: While it has been beneficial, there is an important difference between Android and open source in general. Android is backed by Google, Motorola (News - Alert) and any number of other telephone handset manufacturers. That gives Android a unique seal of approval in the minds of the market that is still not present in the Asterisk world.
RT: How can the Asterisk community capitalize on the growth of mobile communications?
JCC: We are finding greater and greater interest in SIP/mobile phone integration, which allows smartphones the full features, functionality and integration into the enterprise telecommunications infrastructure. In general, there is a movement toward customers wanting to transparently extend the enterprise telecommunications infrastructure through the cloud to mobile handsets and even to home-based and remote site workers.
RT: What are you hoping to see at AstriCon 2010?
JCC: We are hoping to see new and exciting applications that we can offer our clients.
RT: Why is your booth a must-visit for attendees?
BellVoz is a leader in a number of key areas in the Asterisk world. We can offer a range of telecommunications solutions beyond Asterisk for clients with overseas operations or overseas clients and vendors.
We, as an International SIP trunking provider, can offer excellent rates for termination and origination calls. We have very strong expertise in call center VoIP SIP termination with big savings up to 70 percent from the preview bills.
Our partners love to offer our service because the great quality and customer support plus the great residuals by referred customers. We have a unique capability to offer sales, support and service in English, Spanish and Portuguese and we have technicians throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.
Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Tammy Wolf
