It's clear that many VoIP companies aren't meant to be standalone telecom businesses – they function far better as providers of features and capabilities to other telecom businesses. The latest example of this is SabSe Technology's acquisition of Mobivox. Although Montreal-based Mobivox offered cheap VoIP calling services of various types, what set it apart was its so-called voice-activated user interface, or VUI. The interface let users dial by speaking rather than pressing keys – a significant benefit for mobile talkers. The addition of this capability will boost the attractiveness of the array of services SabSe is offering worldwide.
The strategy of Mountain View, Calif.-based startup SabSe is to provide cloud telephony services to carriers globally, mainly on a revenue-sharing basis. Its call-processing platform can handle both TDM and VoIP calls. That's important because of the company's focus on developing countries, which don't always have developed VoIP infrastructures. Users in the different countries obviously also speak a variety of languages, which makes Mobivox's multi-lingual capabilities particularly useful. The VUI is currently available in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
SabSe is already offering a variety of useful services. It provides audio conferencing in India under the SabSeBolo name, as well as hosted PBX service in some markets. And its recent acquisition of VoIP startup jaxtr added a number of click-to-call, mobile and Web-activated low-cost calling services to its portfolio. The Mobivox VUI will help SabSe sell such services, as well as any it adds in the future. Mobivox also provides capabilities such as speech-to-text transcription, which SabSe could offer with other services.
SabSe's founders are long-time entrepreneur Yogesh Patel, and Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia.
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