Genband

Last updated
Genband US LLC
Type Private
Industry Telecommunications
Founded Austin, TX (1999)
Headquarters,
United States
Key people
David Walsh (President, CEO and Chairman)
Website www.genband.com

Genband US LLC was a privately held company that makes IP-based real time communications software products for fixed wireline, mobile, and cable service providers as well as large enterprises. The company was formed in 1999 as General Bandwidth, and is headquartered in Frisco, Texas. In the following 15 years it acquired several other companies doing related work.

Contents

On October 30, 2017 the merger was completed between Genband and Sonus Networks to form Ribbon Communications. [2] [3]

History

General Bandwidth was founded in 1999 by Paul Carew, Brendon Mills, Ron Lutz and Steve Raich in Austin, Texas and received initial venture capital funding of $12 million. The company raised over $200 million in four rounds of venture funding and grew to over 200 people by 2003.

In 2004, Charles Vogt joined the company as CEO and president. In March 2006, General Bandwidth changed its name to Genband, Inc. and moved its headquarters to Plano, Texas.

Genband started as a media gateway vendor selling the G6 media gateway, but has since branched out to IP switching, IP Applications, IMS and Session Border Controllers.

In addition to internal research and development, the company has expanded its product portfolio through multiple acquisitions.

In 2007, Genband acquired Tekelec’s switching group, which expanded product offerings in application software and SIP trunking gateways. In 2008, the company acquired Nokia Siemens Networks’ Surpass HiG media gateway product portfolio, including fixed-line trunking media gateways. The company concluded 2008 with the acquisition of NextPoint Networks, which included session border controller (SBCs) and security gateway offerings.

In 2010, Genband purchased Nortel Networks' carrier VoIP and application business. [4] The acquisition quadrupled the size of the company and made GENBAND the market share leader in carrier VoIP.

Following the acquisition, Genband announced a product roadmap based on Genband GENiUS, a software centric, unified IP switching and networking platform, which integrated application server, call control, session border controller and security products, for building and managing telecommunications networks.

In 2011, Genband acquired Cedar Point Communications, marketing VoIP to the cable industry. [5]

In 2012, Genband acquired Aztek Networks, a switch maker specializing in hardware that allows for a smoother transition from legacy to IP networks. [6]

In 2012 Genband was named the top-ventured capital backed company by the Wall Street Journal out of nearly 6,000 companies that were considered. [7]

In 2013, Genband acquired Fringland Ltd., provider of the Fring! app, an over-the-top (OTT) mobile IP communications service provider. Two years later, it announced the Fring Alliance, a community promoting communications service providers to to provide instant messaging, voice and video services to their subscribers. [8]

Charles Vogt left Genband in 2013 and David Walsh added the CEO position to his other already held title of Chairman. [9]

In 2014, Genband acquired uReach Technologies, a provider of unified communications and messaging, and introduced unified communications products and services for business customers. [10]

In 2014, Genband also launched Kandy.io, a cloud-based, real-time software development communications platform as a service (PaaS).

In May 2015, Genband was named in CNBC’s "disruptor" list. [11]

Related Research Articles

3Com Manufacturer of computer network products

3Com Corporation was a digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe explained the name 3Com was a contraction of "Computer Communication Compatibility", with its focus on Ethernet technology that he had co-invented, which enabled the networking of computers.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet telephony, broadband telephony, and broadband phone service specifically refer to the provisioning of communications services over the Internet, rather than via the public switched telephone network (PSTN), also known as plain old telephone service (POTS).

Vonage is an American publicly held business cloud communications provider. Headquartered in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, the company was founded in 2001 as a provider of residential telecommunications services based on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Digital Multiplex System Electronic telephone switch

Digital Multiplex System (DMS) is the name shared among several different telephony product lines from Nortel Networks for wireline and wireless operators. Among them are the DMS-1 Rural/Urban digital loop carrier, the DMS-10 telephone switch, the DMS SuperNode family of telephone switches, and the S/DMS optical transmission system.

SipXecs

sipXecs is a free software enterprise communications system. It was initially developed as a proprietary voice over IP telephony server in 2003 by Pingtel Corporation in Boston, MA, and later extended with additional collaboration capabilities in the SIPfoundry project. Its core feature is a software implementation of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which makes it an IP based communications system.

Acme Packet

Acme Packet was a company based in Bedford, Massachusetts that sold session border controllers (SBCs), multiservice security gateways (MSGs) and session routing proxies (SRPs) to service providers and enterprises. It was a public company incorporated in Delaware. Acme Packet employs over 761 individuals in 31 countries. In 2011 The Boston Globe named Acme Packet one of the best places to work in Massachusetts.

TouchWave, Inc., was a privately held Palo Alto, California IP-telephony network switch provider founded in 1997. TouchWave developed a product line called WebSwitch that was designed to replace traditional private telephone exchange systems in small-to-medium-sized companies. WebSwitch was part of a phone system that incorporates communication features provided by the Internet. The rapid success of TouchWave was memorialized with awards and an acquisition by Ericsson Communications for $46M two years after TouchWave was founded. Ericsson continued the TouchWave product line under the name WebCom, but its efforts have been viewed as less than successful.

Metaswitch Networks was a private UK-based company until it was acquired by Microsoft in July 2020. Metaswitch Networks designs, develops, manufactures, and markets telecommunications software to communication service providers, equipment manufacturers and large enterprises.

Dialogic Corp Business enterprise

Dialogic is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, United States, with operations in over 25 countries. Dialogic provides a cloud-optimized communications technology for real-time communications media, applications, and infrastructure to service providers, enterprises, and developers. Dialogic products are sold directly, as well as through a network of distributors, resellers, and partners, and supplied to OEMs.

AudioCodes

AudioCodes Ltd. is a provider of advanced communications software, products and productivity solutions. Its services enable enterprises and service providers to build and operate all-IP voice networks for unified communications (UC), contact centers and hosted business services. Founded in 1993 by Shabtai Adlersberg and Leon Bialik, AudioCodes is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Founded in 1998, Continuous Computing is a privately held company based in San Diego that provides telecom systems made up of telecom platforms and Trillium software, including protocol software stacks for femtocells and 4G wireless / Long Term Evolution (LTE). The company also sells standalone Trillium software products and ATCA hardware components, as well as professional services. Continuous Computing's Trillium software addresses LTE Femtocells and pico / macro eNodeBs, as well as the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (SWG) and Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG).

Broadvox is a VoIP service provider for business telecommunications. It offers voice and data network solutions for telecommunications, cable, and wireless carriers, as well as ISPs, ITSPs, Over-the-top (OTT) service providers, MVNOs, and various other business partners. Broadvox operates its own nationwide competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) facilities.

Empirix Inc. is a privately held company which designs and manufactures service assurance testing and monitoring equipment for IP-based communications networks such as Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based, next generation network and 4G wireless networks. Empirix offers enterprise and carrier grade products as well as quality assurance products for network equipment manufacturers. Empirix is headquartered in Billerica, MA. On April 21st, 2021, Empirix has been acquired by Infovista, a Network automation software. Infovista, which is majority owned by Apax Partners, says the deal “brings together a team of over 1,000 professionals serving over 1,700 customers across more than 150 countries, including 23 of the top 30 CSPs globally.”

Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. designs, manufactures, develops, and sells fabless semiconductors for communications applications in wireless and wired networks.

DZS, formerly Zhone Technologies and DASAN Zhone Solutions, is a provider of telecommunications networking equipment founded in 1999. It is headquartered in Plano. DZS is ISO 9001:2008 certified in the manufacture and service of telecommunications equipment.

BroadSoft, Inc. is a communication software and service provider that was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2018. BroadSoft was founded in 1998 and completed its initial public offering in 2010, and was headquartered in Maryland. It partners with carriers and large service providers in several countries. BroadSoft’s customers include AT&T, Verizon Communications, Sprint, Charter Communications, Comcast, and Vodafone. The company provides technology for service providers to build cloud-based communications services such as voice, video, web conferencing and team messaging and contextual services.

Performance Technologies, Inc was set up in 1981 and now is based in Rochester, New York. The company engages in network communications, telecommunications, and military, aerospace and government systems. In January 2011, Performance Technologies acquired GENBAND's Universal Signaling Platform (USP) and SP2000 signaling technology.

Ribbon Communications US LLC is a public company that makes software, IP and optical networking solutions for service providers, enterprises and critical infrastructure sectors. The company was formed in 2017, following the merger of Genband and Sonus Networks and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

References

  1. "GENBAND Opens New Worldwide Corporate Headquarters in Frisco, Texas". Genband.com. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  2. "Sonus Networks, Inc. Announces Completion of Sonus and GENBAND Merger". Ribboncommunications.com. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  3. October 30 (2017-10-30). "Sonus Networks Completes Genband Merger, Unveils New Name". Channel Partners. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  4. "Genband Wins Nortel's Carrier VoIP Biz - Light Reading". lifhtreading.com. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  5. "Genband Snares Cedar Point - Light Reading". Lightreading.com. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. Needleman, Sarah E. (27 September 2012). "Genband's Technology Makes It a Winner". Wsj.com. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  8. "Fring Alliance Aims to Become Carrier VoIP Cooperative". Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  9. "GENBAND CEO Charlie Vogt to step down". FierceTelecom. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  10. "Genband Expands Reach in UC Market With uReach Acquisition". Eweek.com. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  11. "Disruptor 50: No. 22 GENBAND". CNBC.com. 12 May 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2018.