2600Hz Blog

(And here’s what 2600Hz is doing about it)

If you have ever dealt with phones, chances are you hate provisioning. If you do it manually, it is exceedingly tedious. If you do it automatically, it can be disastrous. Many organizations opt for a homogeneous equipment mix, supporting only one manufacturer with a proprietary provisioning solution because it works and that’s good enough.

As summer came to a close, so did a major open source acquisition. There’s been a lot of activity disrupting the industry, so in case you missed it, here’s a roundup of the top headlines that have been making waves and changing the unified communications landscape.

MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) have enjoyed a well-developed industry for some time in European markets. However, for those in the U.S., the landscape has historically been different. The Big 4 MNOs have been the default go-to for many customers and businesses. 

"Protecting Your Business by Controlling Telecom Fraud " Is an educational blog that covers several best practices to help you protect your business from fraudulent activity. Over a series of blogs and webinars, we’ll dive into the fundamentals of VoIP fraud, identify typical fraud activities, and discuss essential prevention methodologies you can use to protect your platform, your customers, and...

KAZOOCon 2018 is disrupting the telecom landscape and the future of communications. This year we've invited several fascinating speakers to join our program to offer a once in a lifetime conference experience.

Ever wonder why 2600Hz  seems to be hidden in the shadows?  Learn about how  KAZOO infrastructure is powering some major players in the UCaaS space, and why KAZOO is telecom's best kept secret. Plus a shout out to KAZOOcon!

Telecom conferences are a dime a dozen, but not anymore. KAZOOCon 2018 is disrupting the telecom landscape and the future of communications. But to gain insight on why this conference is so valuable, you have to understand the story. So let's go back to where it began, how it evolved and why this year's event is going above and beyond all the rest. 

"Protecting Your Business by Controlling Telecom Fraud " Is an educational blog that covers several best practices to help you protect your business from fraudulent activity. Over a series of blogs and webinars, we’ll dive into the fundamentals of VoIP fraud, identify typical fraud activities, and discuss essential prevention methodologies you can use to protect your platform, your customers,...

On Monday, Cisco announced that it is acquiring BroadSoft for $1.9 billion, in an effort to move away from routing and switching and to boost its collaboration tools. The acquisition gives Cisco UCaaS capabilities via BroadSoft’s BroadWorks and BroadCloud services, which Cisco will likely tie into their own communications solution, Spark.  

Since the news broke on the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities, there have been many questions surrounding the risks and how to protect yourself. As a telecom software company, we have many years of experience dealing with security threats but have never witnessed one quite like this. Fortunately, because of our unique architecture, these vulnerabilities have minimal impact on our...

Author: Mark Diaz - Founder of Vinix Global. Twitter - Facebook - LinkedIn  

The year was 2005. Vonage, an innovative communications pioneer, had introduced a little analog to digital box that allowed residential customers the ability to connect their home phones and call over the internet for significantly lower rates than the local telecom providers. They had just closed a $40M funding round to...

This year we are proud and excited to announce that we are sponsoring the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Summit in Santa Clara! But you may ask yourself, what the heck is TIP anyways. So we figured we’d dive into how the Telecom Infra Project is making waves and why those within the communications industry should pay attention.

Another day, another telco merger! Last week Cisco announced it bought BroadSoft for $1.9 billion dollars, this week Genband and Sonus have announced the completion of their merger into a new company called Ribbon Communications. Former Sonus and Genband shareholders each own approximately 50% of the parent company, which had approximately 102 million shares outstanding post close. Genband’s...

Across the communications industry, it’s fairly common to hear or read about “distributed systems”. Yet, more often than not, as you dive deeper under the hood, the term doesn’t accurately describe the architecture/capabilities. In reality, most offer what is known as a “Hot Standby”. To better understand the differences of the two strategies, let’s first dive into how and why carriers build...

In case you missed it, we recently announced our new Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) offering. 2600Hz has utilized one of the nation’s top cellular networks to offer voice and data services. Given how fragmented the telecom landscape is, this is a revolutionary accomplishment.

In light of Uber’s recent decision to refocus their messaging services from Twilio to internal tools, Twilio’s shares have dropped by 30%. This does not come as a surprise considering Uber is their largest client. 

Twilio’s business model is built on a small number of reusable APIs that initially took the communications and developer communities by storm. This was due to qualities such as ease of...

Once upon a  time, there was a venturesome, open communications company that dreamed of pioneering a new kind of mobile solution. A solution, that would enable service providers to sell mobile business services, which could seamlessly integrate across multiple PBX platforms and provide an unparallelled business communications experience. However, as the venture unfolded, the reality became clear:...

Open source has long been considered a launchpad for developers and innovators. With a stable foundation in place, programmers could build out their own applications. The resulting products deliver all the desired functionality without a high degree of concern for reliability. It’s a way for businesses to fit into a niche and better serve their customers.

Now that 2600Hz has entered the CPaaS market via KAZOO and PIVOT, we were wondering - has anyone ever done a side-by-side comparison of the biggest CPaaS players? Who’s got an edge in the market? Do their platforms vary based on functionality, or does the big differentiator come from customer support?

The business customer today has different challenges, motivations, and needs than those who needed simple Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) back in the day. Luckily, voice resellers have a wide array of products that can help them meet those needs. Cloud-based VoIP and unified communications technology comes packed with diverse features, new levels of scalability, and meets world-class...

When most call center managers set performance benchmarks, they’re focused on a set of broader goals. For example, picking up a customer call after twenty seconds versus ten probably won’t affect the ultimate outcome of the call. Examine those measurements at scale, however, and you could find some serious implications for productivity. Call center quality management is key to delivering better...

As Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) powers its way to the front line of the telecom market, it’s undoubtedly picking up attention from both telecom providers and the businesses they serve. While telecom giants have made moves to acquire CPaaS vendors and other providers, like Twilio, have filed IPOs, professionals familiar with the industry can discern the value between the choices....

What News?

Since the last reports around the end of November of this year, major telecom player Avaya stands with approximately $600M in debt, repayment of which is due in October 2017. While Avaya is still an undisputed giant in the industry, they have reported losses over several quarters since a high point of about $1 billion back in 2015. A highly trending article from the Wall Street Journal

When you’re dealing with technology, and more specifically, with cloud-based telephony, you’re going to come across a fair number of acronyms. An important one to pay attention to is CPaaS: Communications Platform as a Service. A number of providers, like Twilio, Nexmo, Plivo, and others offer CPaaS products to help businesses get more from their communications infrastructure. 2600Hz users even...

Women Who Code Portland (WWCPDX) is the local chapter Women Who Code (WWC) - a global nonprofit dedicated to helping women to not only excel in their tech careers, but to provide paths into leadership opportunities. WWCPDX is a very active chapter and supports multiple events each month.There are lunches, study groups, networking events, and plenty of opportunities to give back to our...

When introducing customers to any new technology, there are bound to be doubts about its benefits. In the case of unified communications technology, resellers will often hit an objection or two on the first pass. The most common objections, however, can usually be countered with a little customer education. Here are five of the most common objections sales people will come across and some tips...

Earlier this month PDXWIT (Portland Women in Tech) hosted a workshop by our very own lead software architect - James Aimonetti titled, "Demystifying Telecom". James has been a member of the 2600Hz team since 2010, and as the lead software architect of KAZOO, James has quite a bit of telecom development expertise to share.

"Demystifying Telecom" was a talk that focused on providing an entry point...

There are many options on the market for enterprise communications. It’s easy to get distracted by nice-to-have features and easier still to get bogged down in competitive pricing. The problem for VoIP resellers is that they need to be confident in their service offering right from the first pitch. To determine if your offering is a modern and capable voice system that’s reliable and flexible...

There’s always an opportunity for a business to expand its offerings. Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony is unique in that it can be added to nearly any technology reseller’s repertoire. The training required to understand the fundamentals of VoIP is relatively low compared to other technologies, and wholesale vendors are usually there to support their reseller network with any troubleshooting,...

We had a great time sharing news and ideas with others at KazooCon this year in San Francisco. It’s possible, however, that we may have thrown too much information at you, so we wanted to take an opportunity and break down some of the highlights of the event. For our beloved attendees and the friends who couldn’t make it, here’s the inside scoop:

Since Kazoo 4.0 is currently being polished for release, we thought it was a good time to discuss some of the new features that will be available when your system is upgraded.

There’s a slew of new updates to come in the neatly wrapped package that is Kazoo 4.0.

Enterprise businesses are too big to rely on copper-wire telephone service anymore, so they use the cloud as a platform for their voice systems. Cloud, however, seems to still be regarded as an amorphous term in 2016, so let’s provide some simplified definitions around key terms regarding cloud communications and clear the air.

When enterprise businesses search for a voice solution, a complete cloud communications solution is frequently presented as an option.

We’re so excited to officially announce sponsors and the agenda for KazooCon 2016. The event will be hosted on October 17th – 18th at Broadway Studios in San Francisco, CA. Inspired by Kazoo’s VoIP open-source platform and hosted by 2600Hz, KazooCon brings together developers, managed service providers, carriers and telecom evangelists to create unified communications systems.

Imagine this: You’re on the phone with a customer, nailing down your VoIP deal, when you say, “Alright, I’ll set you up in the XYZ user portal and you’ll be good to go!.” The customer responds, “XYZ? What’s that? You don’t make your own products?”

How is media handled?

When we talk about media, we are talking about the audio packets going to and from an endpoint, where an endpoint could be your desk phone, fax machine, an upstream carrier, etc.

Let's assume you're calling a number not managed by the Kazoo installation.

When we gather for KazooCon 2016 on October 17 & 18, we, as a community of voice resellers, do more than just network and evangelize our products. Together we solve problems and bring about change to the business voice industry. Collaboration is one of the single most powerful actions we can take.

Nexmo operates a cloud communications platform that develops APIs for SMS, voice, and phone verifications. In June 2016, Vonage acquired Nexmo, positioning the combined company as a best-in-class leader across the two dominant modes of communication today – voice and messaging.  

Learn about our Kazoo 4.0 Release and much more at KazooCon 2016! Only 10 more days until Early Bird Pricing ends!

Want to learn more? Check out What to Expect at KazooCon 2016.

KazooCon is about the communications revolution, and this year we’re introducing the voice advances that enterprises have been waiting on.

Only 40 days to KazooCon 2016, and Super Early Bird Tickets are expiring this Friday 9/9!

We are thrilled to announce that our 4th Annual KazooCon is happening October 17th-18th in beautiful San Francisco, California.

San Francisco, CA - April 1st, 2016 - With skyrocketing demand for integrations between different services, 2600Hz is staying ahead of the competition with a unique integration named “Carrier Pigeons”.

Open-Source is an enormous component of what powers 2600Hz. Not only are we supporting and contributing to other open-source projects, the Kazoo platform is open-source.