News

So Many Services for Wireless

One vendor says that global opportunities arrive when you combine voice, data, and other services.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [November 28, 2005]

San Francisco, Calif.-based SOMA Networks has had an unusual mix of customer wins. The company sells broadband wireless and telephony solutions to Malaysian service provider JARING and to Great Falls, Mont.-based rural CLEC/ILEC 3 Rivers Internet. It is in trials with PacNet in Singapore.

The common thread uniting the rural U.S., Singapore, and Malaysia is an emerging middle class that's poorly served by local ILECs, says Tom Flak, SOMA's vice president of product strategy.

The company is optimistic about similar opportunities in Eastern Europe and South and Central America—anywhere the local phone company is not broadband-ready, but where the people and the local businesses are ready to pay for it.

When it was founded seven years ago, the company made its own IP to PSTN switches, Flak says, but these days, with open source softswitches available, that's no longer necessary. It's much easier to provide an affordable business class solution to broadband companies that want to deploy business services.

Of course, in some companies, VoIP calls are still illegal, but in many of those nations, it's legal to use a VoIP PBX as long as the call reaches the PTT's network before leaving the country.

"Wherever there's a demand, we can bridge the digital divide," says Flak.

Looking farther into the future, Flak sees a demand for wireless in the core mass markets across the world, but until then, SOMA networks is perfectly willing to work with incumbents and competitors alike in areas where the incumbents' land lines are simply inadequate.

That's everywhere from rural Montana to Kuala Lumpur.

—End