BT Brings Ribbit Voice Innovation to Corporate Phones, Desktops and Softphones

LONDON, May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- BT today announced that its corporate voice-communication solution, BT Onevoice, will integrate advanced voice services from BT's open innovation platform Ribbit, bringing feature-rich voice applications to the desktop.  Onevoice Ribbit v1.0 connects the worlds of the web and traditional corporate voice networks by embedding Ribbit's innovative voice features into any existing corporate telephony environments.

The service is aimed at multinational customers looking to realize the benefits converged communications deliver.  It will also significantly lower operational, network and administration costs by keeping voice calls on-net, minimizing expensive international calls.

Onevoice Ribbit v1.0 will provide users with a single direct dial phone number for all incoming and outgoing calls making it easier for customers, suppliers and partners to contact them first time.  Users will be able to define how calls are routed through the Onevoice VPN to reach them if they are away from their office.  Calls will be delivered on-net to other sites directly to the Ribbit softphone or via the nearest PSTN breakout point to any number globally, minimizing international call costs.  Users can choose to have multiple device options for making and receiving calls through the Onevoice network offering significant call savings on mobile bills.

Neil Sutton, Vice President, Global Portfolio, BT Global Services, said: "Delivering Ribbit to Onevoice customers enables them to start the journey to unified communications and accelerate the adoption of communications applications to the desktop.  Its innovative features also make users lives significantly simpler while enabling the organization to spend less.  This announcement shows our commitment to help customers transform their business, drive down costs and help them increase productivity."

The cloud-based service includes a softphone which gives users easy access to a range of advanced call features for calling any BT Onevoice on-net number, according to their corporate dial-plan, in addition to off-net public numbers.  Enterprise calls can be originated from a softphone, and all on-net numbers and services such as BT Conferencing audio bridges can be accessed at a fraction of the cost of a mobile or hotel phone call.

The user's 'One Number' can also be directed to multiple end points or devices which can easily be moved or changed, so that multiple end points or devices can be reached and even ring simultaneously.  Onevoice Ribbit v1.0 offers a portal for users to set up and administer the service for themselves, including the configuration of end-user devices, call forwarding rules, conference speed dials and speed-dial favorites.  Users will also be able to view call logs, manage passwords and voicemail including speech-to-text transcriptions.  The transcription is sent as text to email or SMS, and the recording is attached to emails so users can listen to the voice mail.

The service will be released to selected customers in beta this summer, with full release expected by the end of this year.

Notes to Editors

BT Onevoice allows customers for the first time to buy a fully converged, of-the-shelf, integrated voice and data service under a single bill, contract and SLA. BT Onevoice Mobile Access is an easy method to reduce international mobile spend.

BT's Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) solutions include a combination of traditional voice services, next generation voice services including VoIP and IPT, BT professional services and support of key vendor platforms such as Cisco, Nortel and Microsoft managed services. BT also offers full integration of Cisco UCC with key software platforms such as MS and IBM applications to offer a comprehensive UCC portfolio.

BT Global Services solutions directly address the needs of Global Enterprise customers in both local site based deployments of customer premise equipment, and also to reflect the growing demand in "cloud" based hosted solutions. Both premises equipment-based and hosted solutions are supporting leading vendors in UCC and are both underpinned by BT's voice solutions, integration skills and global networking capabilities.

About BT

BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in more than 170 countries.  Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services.  BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale. In the year ended 31 March 2010, BT Group's revenue was pounds Sterling 20,911 million. British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group.  BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.  

For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt.

About Ribbit

Ribbit is an open platform for communication innovation, bringing together the Internet, voice and data to form a new world of intelligent, integrated communication solutions. We see a future where rich voice and data travels seamlessly across devices, networks, carriers and protocols to create a better informed and more connected world. Ribbit was created to accelerate that future. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Ribbit is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT. For more information about Ribbit, please visit www.ribbit.com.

SOURCE BT