AudioCodes and Skype interop

Skype with a new management and investors is aggressively pursuing enterprise options. Today AudioCodes announced a partnership with Skype that will allow AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway to interop with Skype network via SIP. This would enable enterprise users to make outbound calls to mobile and landlines around the world using Skype network. Also, this would allow them to receive inbound calls from Skype users. A perfect fit for Call Center and Clicl-to-Call applications.

Below is the press release:

Lod, Israel and Luxembourg – March 22, 2010 – Skype and AudioCodes (NasdaqGS: AUDC) today announced that the AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway has been certified as interoperable with Skype for SIP. This will enable the majority of the world’s small and medium-sized businesses, who are still using legacy TDM PBXs and Key-Systems to communicate more efficiently by directing their outbound calls to mobile phones and landlines around the world through Skype. It will also allow them to receive inbound calls from Skype users.

“In today’s tough economy, executives of small and medium-sized companies realize that effective communication with customers, partners and employees is a key to helping them grow their business,” said David Gurle, VP and General Manager of Skype for Business. “By certifying the AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway as interoperable with Skype for SIP, we are enabling businesses that are using TDM equipment to connect to the IP world and helping them save money, save time and stay ahead of the competition.”

Interoperability with Skype for SIP means that small businesses can take advantage of the cost savings provided by Skype’s low-cost global calling rates when their employees call landlines and mobile phones around the world. A company can also receive inbound voice calls from any of the more than 521 million registered Skype users around the world via a global click-to-call button on its Web site. By certifying the AudioCodes Multi-Service Business Gateways with Skype for SIP, customers can benefit from interoperability with hundreds of TDM PBXs, Key Systems, and IP-PBXs that have not been able to connect to Skype so far. In addition, if a company buys and associates an online Skype number with their AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway solution, it can then receive inbound calls via Skype from business contacts and customers calling from landline and mobile phones.

“Partnering with Skype is an important milestone in AudioCodes’ strategy of interoperating with the leaders in the Internet communications market,” said Jeff Kahn, Chief Strategic Officer at AudioCodes. “We are excited about Skype for SIP interoperability since it opens the market for customers to get the benefits of Skype, without replacing their existing PBX equipment. The AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway offers ultimate flexibility and modularity, supporting many types of TDM and IP-PBX connectivity options, integrated with routing, firewalling, Enterprise SBC and application hosting capabilities. Our ability to connect to TDM PBXs and IP-PBXs simultaneously enables customers to smoothly migrate from TDM telephony to the IP world.”

Certification testing of Skype for SIP with the AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway was conducted by tekVizion Labs™, an independent test facility in Richardson, Texas, which specializes in IP communications interoperability testing.