TouchWave

Last updated
TouchWave, Inc.
Touchwave-logo.png
Type of business Private
Available in English
Founded Palo Alto, California
Headquarters Menlo Park, California
Current statusacquired

TouchWave, Inc. (now WebCom), 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.

Contents

History

In 1997, TouchWave was a privately held, venture-backed startup company in Palo Alto, California, with future entrepreneur Oliver Muoto as its marketing director. [1] [2] Co-founded by CEO Bo Larsson, [3] Jeff Snider, [4] David F. Wittenkamp, [5] and Jesper Stroe, [6] TouchWave released its first product, WebSwitch, in 1997. [7] WebSwitch, a Web-based phone switch, [7] provided telephony over IP and targeted small to medium-sized businesses and branch networks of larger organizations. [7] The WebSwitch was designed to deliver significantly lower costs for communications, ease of management and administration and offered services on a single IP-based network platform. [8] The timing of TouchWave's late 1997 release of its phone switch product matched Level 3's development of its first softswitch, a method to connect calls from one phone line to another without a need to use traditional hardware. [9]

TouchWave made significant business and technology advances in 1998 and quickly became a recognized contributor to the VoIP industry. In March 1998, TouchWave received the Best of Show Award at both at the Microsoft Network Telephony Forum and the Computer Telephony Expo (Los Angeles) for its WebSwitch product. [10] In April, Communications Convergence magazine identified TouchWave's WebSwitch as "[hinting] at the future, where voice and data will live together on a single network." [11] In July, TouchWave entered into a partnership agreement with British Telecom, [12] the dominant fixed line telecommunications and broadband Internet provider in the United Kingdom. The partnership brought TouchWave access to technical recommendations and product feedback from British Telecom to be used to develop WebSwitch. [12] In August, Computer Telephony awarded TouchWave its Editor's Choice Award for the WebSwitch product. [10] In September, TouchWave introduced a new version of WebSwitch. [13] In October 1998, TouchWave entered into an agreement with Telogy Networks to include Telogy's embedded communications software in WebSwitch in order to improve the quality of its sound transmission. [10] By the end of 1998, TouchWave had improved its product line to where it could replace traditional private telephone exchange systems in small-to-medium-sized companies throughout the world. [14]

By early April 1999, TouchWave had upgraded their WebSwitch 1608 local area network distributed phone system to a product called WebSwitch 2000. [15] On April 13, 1999, Swedish telecommunication company Ericsson announced that it had purchased TouchWave for $46 million. [16] In exchange for the $46M, TouchWave provided Ericsson with Internet Protocol centric network products such as business phone and private business exchanges. [16] The acquisition of TouchWave came at a time when multibillion-dollar companies were acquiring other relatively small Internet-connected companies, such as WebLine, Selsius, GeoTel, NBX, Dialogic, and Summa Four. [17] Some employees from TouchWave eventually followed serial entrepreneur and former TouchWave president and CEO Samir Lehaff to Adomo, Inc., a provider of voicemail majordomo services. [18] [19] TouchWave co-founder Jeff Snider would go on to be vice president of enterprise sales at Ericsson and then a CEO co-founder of Adomo in 1999. [6]

WebCom

With Ericsson's 1999 purchase, TouchWave became a subsidiary of Ericsson and was renamed WebCom. [20] In April 2000, Ericsson WebCom, now based in Menlo Park, California, expanded TouchWave's WebSwitch product line with the WebSwitch 100 Phone Gateway and IP Extension Gateway. [21] In January 2003, Business Communications Review magazine stated that Ericsson's acquisition of TouchWave "turned out to be of little consequence." [22] A year later, that same magazine asserted that Ericsson's acquisition of TouchWave had not produced a desired result, writing that it had "borne little fruit." [23]

Related Research Articles

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for voice calls for the delivery of voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.

Vonage Holdings Corp. is an American cloud communications provider operating as a subsidiary of Ericsson. Headquartered in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, the organization was founded in 1998 as Min-X as a provider of residential telecommunications services based on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In 2001, the organization changed its name to Vonage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asterisk (PBX)</span> PBX software

Asterisk is a software implementation of a private branch exchange (PBX). In conjunction with suitable telephony hardware interfaces and network applications, Asterisk is used to establish and control telephone calls between telecommunication endpoints such as customary telephone sets, destinations on the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and devices or services on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks. Its name comes from the asterisk (*) symbol for a signal used in dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) dialing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business telephone system</span> Telephone system typically used in business environments

A business telephone system is a telephone system typically used in business environments, encompassing the range of technology from the key telephone system (KTS) to the private branch exchange (PBX).

Broadvoice is a privately owned company headquartered in Northridge, California. They provide Voice over IP (VOIP) cloud-based telecommunications services to small, medium, and enterprise businesses in the United States. Broadvoice offers telephone services, unified communications as a service (UCaaS), SIP Trunking, telecommunications network and security, along with virtual call centers, so business customers can use voice and video communications via a broadband Internet connection or cellular phone.

Rogers Telecom Inc. is a subsidiary of Rogers Communications. It is a Canadian company based in Toronto that focuses on integrated communications as a provider of data, e-business and voice services to business and households. It used to be known as Sprint Canada Inc., pursuant to a 1993 branding agreement between parent Call-Net Enterprises Inc. with what is now Sprint Nextel Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SipXecs</span>

SipXecs is a free software enterprise communications system. It was initially developed by Pingtel Corporation in 2003 as a voice over IP telephony server located in Boston, MA. The server was later extended with additional collaboration capabilities as part of the SIPfoundry project. Since its extension, sipXecs now acts as a software implementation of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), making it a full IP-based communications system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nortel Meridian</span>

Nortel Meridian is a private branch exchange telephone switching system. It provides advanced voice features, data connectivity, LAN communications, computer telephony integration (CTI), and information services for communication applications ranging from 60 to 80,000 lines.

Selsius Systems was a telecommunications company in Dallas, Texas that developed and marketed some of the first IP telephony gear. It was co-founded by Richard Platt and David Tucker. Selsius was incorporated in 1997 and acquired by Cisco Systems in November, 1998.

snom

Snom Technology GmbH is a German company which manufactures Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones, based on the IETF standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Snom's products are targeted at the small- to medium-sized business sector, home offices, Internet service providers, carriers, and original equipment manufacturers. The company, founded in 1996 and headquartered in Berlin, is a wholly owned subsidiary of VTech Holdings Limited, since 2016.

Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice, mobility features, audio, web & video conferencing, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), desktop sharing, data sharing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging. UC is not necessarily a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.

TalkSwitch was a company that designed and built telephone systems for small and multi-location businesses. The company's Private branch exchange (PBX) and hybrid IP-PBX products enable communication over telephone and Voice over IP (VoIP) networks.

An IP PBX is a system that connects telephone extensions to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and provides internal communication for a business. An IP PBX is a PBX system with IP connectivity and may provide additional audio, video, or instant messaging communication utilizing the TCP/IP protocol stack.

Iristel is a Canadian provider of telecommunication services that is a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC). The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Markham, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dreamtilt</span> Australian Internet Service Provider

Dreamtilt is an Australian Internet Service Provider, founded on 10 October 1999. The ISP focuses primarily on Fixed Wireless-based Internet access, making it a Wireless Internet Service Provider. Dreamtilt also provides web hosting, web design, Voice over IP, and a variety of related services.

Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet. Cloud services is a broad term, referring primarily to data-center-hosted services that are run and accessed over an Internet infrastructure. Until recently, these services have been data-centric, but with the evolution of VoIP, voice has become part of the cloud phenomenon. Cloud telephony refers specifically to voice services and more specifically the replacement of conventional business telephone equipment, such as a private branch exchange (PBX), with third-party VoIP service.

SIP trunking is a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and streaming media service based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) by which Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs) deliver telephone services and unified communications to customers equipped with SIP-based private branch exchange (IP-PBX) and unified communications facilities. Most unified communications applications provide voice, video, and other streaming media applications such as desktop sharing, web conferencing, and shared whiteboard.

SunComm Technology is a Taiwan multinational computer technology and GSM Voice over IP gateway manufacturer. The main products in 2010 focused on GSM VoIP gateways & IP surveillance camera devices. Core members have been engaging in the communication & networks industry since 1977.

Equiinet is a privately held company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company is the manufacturer of voice and security appliances and provides telecommunications, cloud services, and VoIP services.

References

  1. ↑ Presti, Ken (October 6, 1997). "N+I conference highlights future of networking". Computer Reseller News.
  2. ↑ Abate, Tom (November 4, 1997). "$150,000 Debt Could Kill Berkeley Mac Users Group". Business. San Francisco Chronicle . pp. C3. Retrieved 16 December 2008.[ permanent dead link ]
  3. ↑ Cardillo, Barbara (February 25, 2004). "Firetide Names New CEO Mesh Networking Leader Appoints Bo Larsson to Top Spot". PR Newswire . Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  4. ↑ Kenn, Benita (February 14, 2005). "Bob Cohn, Octel Co-Founder, Named Chairman of Board of Adomo Inc". PR Newswire . Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  5. ↑ Messmer, Ellen (May 16, 2004). "People in Wireless News: Dealix Names Wittenkamp as CFO". Wireless News. Archived from the original on 8 April 2007. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  6. 1 2 "Adomo Bolsters Speech-Recognition Product". APPS. Network World . May 6, 2002. p. 38. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  7. 1 2 3 Presti, Ken (September 29, 1997). "Commonplace? Taking video to the desktop -- ATM Specification To Take Center Stage At N+I Show". Computer Reseller News . CMP Media.
  8. ↑ "Finally going live with voice over IP". InfoWorld . June 12, 1999. Retrieved 2008-12-13.[ dead link ]
  9. ↑ "The 10 that Established VoIP (Part 2: Level 3)". iLocus. July 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
  10. 1 2 3 "TouchWave Partners With Telogy Networks For VoIP Embedded Communications Software". Business Wire . October 5, 1998. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  11. ↑ Ogasaware, Todd (April 1, 1998). "Touchwave's Winning Webswitch". Communications Convergence. p. 134.
  12. 1 2 "TouchWave Forges Agreement With British Telecom". PR Newswire . July 10, 1998. Retrieved 16 December 2008.[ dead link ]
  13. ↑ "VoIP builds scalable phone net. TouchWave introduces new version of WebSwitch 1608 that includes voice-over-IP functionality". Voice International . September 7, 1998. p. 76.
  14. ↑ Whitehead, Ingrid (November 1, 1998). "Touchwave's Webswitch Wows 'em". Communications Convergence . 6 (11): 76.
  15. ↑ "Teleconnect 99 CT Expo Best of Show". Teleconnect. 17 (4). April 1, 1999.
  16. 1 2 "Acquisition: Ericsson acquires TouchWave, Inc. provider of enterprise IP-telephony solutions – Company Business and Marketing". Bnet. April 19, 1999. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
  17. ↑ Margulies, Ed (November 1, 1999). "Blessed Be The Evangelists". Communications Convergence . 7 (11): 141.
  18. ↑ Electronic Business. Cahners Publishing Co. 1999. p. 44. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
  19. ↑ "Adomo, Inc". Hoover's In-Depth Company Records . June 20, 2007. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  20. ↑ Sulkin, Allan (January 31, 2000). "PBX market gets ready to shift gears". Business Communications Review. 30 (1): 43.
  21. ↑ Grigonis, Richard (April 1, 2000). "Ready For Market!(Industry Trend or Event)". Communications Convergence . 8 (4): 120.
  22. ↑ Sulkin, Allan (January 1, 2003). "PBX market-the shift to IP is on". Business Communications Review. 33 (1): 21. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  23. ↑ "IP-Telephony Drives PBX Market Resurgence". Business Communications Review. 34 (1): 18. January 1, 2004. Retrieved 16 December 2008.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.