Bit6 announced recently that it had added support for public switched telephone network (PSTN) technology in its SDKs for iOS, Android (News - Alert) and JavaScript. It will give developers the ability to build apps that use older telephony and improve their connection options.
Houston, Tex.-based Bit6 makes SDKs that allow developers to add telephony functions to the apps they create. They can also develop Communications as a Service (CaaS) solutions with these kits. Bit6 is a division of Voxofon, also based in Houston, a company that develops messaging and VoIP solutions.
The company’s first SDK was released back in April. It provided messaging and would allow users to share image, voice, video, and location information for iOS devices. App-to-app messaging, real-time notifications, and voice and video calling features have since been added. All features are available for iOS, Android and JavaScript.
Adding PSTN to the SDKs gives developers a wider range of communications that their applications can support. One of its biggest benefits is that it would allow apps an alternative method to make phone calls whenever VoIP connections are poor or unavailable.
This would be a very important feature to have for customer service applications where agents and customers would still be able to connect when Internet service is slow or even down. More importantly, PSTN support could be life-saving when used in an emergency dispatch environment. Someone needing EMTs and ambulance service would be still able to get a call through, even if Internet service was not reliable.
In spite of all the talk of consumers ditching their landline service and going mobile-only or the growing popularity alternatives to POTS like VoIP service, Bit6’s support for PSTN can still be considered a breakthrough. A large number of people still use landline service. Any operation that seeks to serve as wide an audience as possible would be foolish to implement a communications solution that did not support PSTN. It would also be foolish from both a disaster management and business continuity standpoint.