Azercell, Defne Co-Production Augments Virtual PBX

“The largest mobile communications firm in Azerbaijan” may not sound like much, but with over four million subscribers to its credit, Azercell is a firm to take seriously. Recently, Azercell got together with Defne to create some useful new advances in the virtual private branch exchange (PBX) service, and will be bringing these out fairly rapidly.

Perhaps the biggest development, which should be available soon if not already, is that Azercell will put Defne's mobile virtual private network (VPN) system in place for enterprise customers. That by itself would be a fairly substantial advance, but that's not all that the duo is planning. Reports also note that Azercell will be turning to Defne's body of work for new developments in virtual PBX like call management and call control systems, again for the enterprise segment, to provide new revenue streams for Azercell.

The mobile VPN solution actually includes more solutions than just a VPN; there's a private numbering plan thrown in, as well as short code dialing and support for roaming as well as bulk messages. An interactive voice response (IVR)-based call screening system is in place to help make calling more efficient, and there's a Web-based graphic user interface (GUI) to help keep it all together. Throw in a variety of call handling features, like call blocking with whitelist and blacklist options, as well as call waiting, call forwarding, call parking and even call recording options, and it's easy to see why Defna's systems proved attractive to Azercell.

Azercell CEO Vahid Mursaliyev commented “We are thrilled to be partnering with Defne on the MVPN project, which I have no doubt will be a strategic addition to our enterprise VAS offering. The Mobile VPN solution will provide Azercell with the tools our enterprise customers need. We will enable them to control their operational costs while creating an environment for true unified communications, and increasing productivity of their employees."

With competition on the rise and economic pressures mounting, companies need ways to establish new income streams, and for Azercell, stepping up its feature set was one big way to do that. Azercell's likely to need a fresh new slug of cash going forward, especially with the first commercial rollouts of 5G coming out in a little over three years by some reports.  Regardless of whether or not Azercell is poising itself to be among the first to offer 5G access in Azerbaijan, the value of a fresh cash supply is still clear and present by itself.

It's interesting to see where Azercell has gone already with its Defne partnership in virtual PBX development, and it will be even more interesting to see where Azercell takes all this new investment


Edited by Maurice Nagle