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BT bets on open development |
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Written by Daniel
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Wednesday, 30 July 2008 |
July 29, 2008 5:00 PM PDT
BT bets on open development
Posted by Marguerite Reardon
BT, long considered a risk-taker in the telecommunications market, has laid a $105 million bet to open its network to application developers in the hopes of creating innovative voice services. But will other phone companies take a similar gamble?
Eventually, they will. But it will take time. Experts such as Will Stofega, a research director for IDC, say that phone companies must evolve beyond simply delivering phone and data services. In an age where voice has become just another application delivered over an Internet-based network, phone companies need to be at the forefront of developing new services and applications. And to do that, they'll need some help.
"The U.S. operators, and most operators in Europe for that matter, aren't doing what BT is doing today," Stofega said. "But they will have to eventually, in order to survive. It just might take them awhile to get there."
On Tuesday, BT (previously known as British Telecom) said it was buying the Silicon Valley start-up Ribbit for $105 million. Ribbit is a software company that has built a platform that allows developers to integrate voice features into Web applications, such as Salesforce.com, Facebook, and the iPhone. BT plans to use Ribbit to provide developers open access to the company's newly built all-IP network called 21CN. [C/Net News...] [Comments...] |
