I thought it would be good to talk about a couple of real WebRTC solution deliveries this time.  Often I hear a question like, “If WebRTC is so great, show me who is using it in real products?”    So, here are three examples of companies using WebRTC today in their products.

First, UberConference is using WebRTC as one of the options to use its audio conferencing service. When you join a conference from the website, it asks if you want to dial in or use your computer. If you click to use your computer, it uses the WebRTC capability of your browser to join the meeting.

Craig Walker (News - Alert), UberConference CEO, told me that this already represents more than 10 percent of the company’s minutes, and it’s growing. Of course, the fact that WebRTC users get wideband audio that makes the experience better than a phone helps ease the transition. 

Another company that recently announced a WebRTC offer is Voxbone (News - Alert). This company has enabled WebRTC on its global number inbound dialing system.

Voxbone delivers local number dialing in more than 50 counties around the world (of course, that means there are another 140 or so they are not in). With the Voxbone system, a customer can have a single SIP trunk and have all the calls from all of the supported countries delivered together and only pay for them by a single minute cost. This is why the company is huge in the audio conferencing and cloud contact center markets as local number access and SIP backhaul. And it has its own IP infrastructure for quality.

Having added WebRTC to its infrastructure, a company now can just have an icon with a URL link to the Voxbone network and now an end user on a WebRTC browser can participate in any Voxbone-connected audio sessions. The great thing about this offer is it has all of the WebRTC advantages without the customer actually doing any code. The WebRTC sessions come in over the same SIP trunk as the local dial session, and the Voxbone network gets the IP traffic in a local PoP and carries it back to maximize quality. This could become a very interesting quick contact center integration.

Finally, as part of a major company re-positioning and new offers, LifeSize (News - Alert) has made WebRTC a key component of its new cloud video offer. In this offer, for $25 per month, a user gets up to 25 ports of MCU-based conferencing (25 minimum users for an account – $7,500 per year).  In addition to supporting existing SIP and other video endpoints, the solution comes with WebRTC as one of the endpoints supported.  

According to Craig Malloy, LifeSize CEO, the WebRTC client makes it much easier to have people outside your organization join, as there are no downloads or clients to deal with. This new offer will be very interesting to see. As it allows a company to use an existing room system with WebRTC endpoints and external participants, it is ideal for outward-focused companies. I expect it will get a lot of traction in legal, consulting, and other fields where the value of video is greatly enhanced by enabling easy video with outside customers and clients. Come to think of it, that is just about anybody in business.

These are just three examples of the explosion that is starting in WebRTC. There are many more examples, but these are recent and each unique. If you have not been looking at WebRTC, perhaps now is the time, and one of these is something to use.  Or maybe you were invited to a video call and did not know it was WebRTC.  A quick clue, if you did not download anything, if it started easily, and if your browser asked you to allow the connection, it was probably WebRTC.

Phil Edholm (News - Alert) is the president and founder of PKE Consulting LLC and works with INTERNET TELEPHONY parent company, TMC (News - Alert), to stage the WebRTC Conference & Expo.