TMCnet News

FREETALK Connect Alliance Formed at IT EXPO 2010

[January 21, 2010]

FREETALK Connect Alliance Formed at IT EXPO 2010

Originally posted on VoIP & Gadgets Blog, here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/freetalk-connect-alliance-formed-at-it-expo-2010.asp.

Andy Abramson (News - Alert) (aka Mr. Harem of VoIP/Communications clients) told me that the new FREETALK Connect Alliance formed at ITEXPO has received a lot of interest from various companies looking to join in addition to the 14 charter members that have already joined.

Here's the news announcement:

FREETALK Connect Alliance Formed at ITEXPO 2010 with 14 Charter Members;
Open Alliance Members Will Offer Products and Services that Leverage
FREETALK Connect, Voice 2.0 Applications and Cloud-Based Services

Members will offer innovative products and cloud-based services that interoperate with FREETALK Connect via Asterisk (News - Alert), Skype, SIP, Skype for SIP, or PSTN

FREETALKï¿½ and 13 other companies today announced the formation of the FREETALK Connect Alliance, an open alliance of companies that will provide innovative applications, products and services to expand the capabilities of the FREETALK Connect communications system. The alliance is open to companies that offer products and services which build on the capabilities of the FREETALK Connect, "Voice 2.0" in concept, and can interoperate with Asterisk, Skypeï¿½, SIP, Skype for SIP or the PSTN.

The FREETALK Connect simplifies set up, enabling small business users that are not tech savvy to use it quickly and simply, without formal training. Supported telephones are plugged into the company's network and the FREETALK Connect auto-detects and configures them. An on-screen wizard then guides the customer through a few business-related questions that help configure the company's communication system and enables Skype calling from every supported desktop phone in the office. Adding users and administering the system after installation is just as easy.

The FREETALK Connect Alliance opens the door for many new developers, service providers, including cloud computing and Internet communications providers to offer new and innovative applications, products and services for businesses of any size. These will be available later this year in the U.S. through the FREETALK Connect Store (http://www.freetalkconnect.com) and the Skype Shop (http://skype.com/shop), both of which are operated by In Store Solutions.

The charter members of the FREETALK Connect Alliance include:

ï¿½    AbbeyNet/Sitofono (Italy)
ï¿½    Cloudvox (USA)
ï¿½    FlatPlanet Phone (News - Alert) Company (Israel)
ï¿½    FREETALK (Spain)
ï¿½    IfByPhone (USA)
ï¿½    In Store Solutions (Hong Kong)
ï¿½    Iotum/Calliflower (Canada)
ï¿½    Jazinga (News - Alert) (Canada)
ï¿½    Skype (Luxembourg)
ï¿½    Tatung (Taiwan)
ï¿½    Thomas Howe's Light and Electric (USA)
ï¿½    Voxeo (US)
ï¿½    Voxygen (UK)
ï¿½    Voxbone (News - Alert) (Belgium)

"The FREETALK Connect Alliance members are building an entire ecosystem of products, applications and services around the FREETALK Connect communications system," said Andrew Hansen, B2B manager at FREETALK. "The Alliance's products and services build on, and powerfully leverage, the strengths of each other, and the market reach of the extremely affordable, fully featured and self-configuring FREETALK Connect."

Companies that want more information about this alliance, or want to join the FREETALK Connect Alliance hould contact FREETALK at [email protected].