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Tag: 8×8

  • 8×8 Partners With Polycom

    8×8 announced it has signed a partnership agreement with Polycom enabling it to offer Polycom’s IP telephony and conferencing solutions to 8×8 Virtual Office hosted VoIP subscribers.

    8×8’s initial offering features the Polycom SoundPoint IP 335 desk phone. According to the company, the SoundPoint IP 335 is “a high quality, entry-level SIP phone that seamlessly integrates with 8×8’s systems to deliver advanced telephony features such as auto attendant, voicemail, Caller ID, call forwarding, conference bridge and Polycom HD Voice at an affordable cost.”

    In addition, these phones also include a capability called Voice Quality Monitoring (VQMON), which gives 8×8 the ability to monitor in real-time the quality of a customer’s call. This feature helps the company quickly diagnose customer issues, provide faster problem resolution and ultimately deliver better service.

    8×8 also informed that they will be introducing additional SoundPoint IP desktop phones, SoundStation IP conference phones and Polycom KIRK wireless phones and accessories in the coming weeks and months.

    "8×8 is very pleased to be working with Polycom as we fulfill our separate, but common, commitment to deliver affordable, high quality voice solutions to businesses of all sizes," said 8×8 Chairman & CEO Bryan Martin.

    "Polycom’s reliable, cutting edge offerings will be a valuable addition to our IP phone portfolio and a tremendous vehicle for enabling our Virtual Office customers to experience and benefit from technological advancements such as HD Voice," he said.

    "8×8 has established itself as an innovative and successful provider of hosted PBX and unified communications services and we look forward to working together to offer cost-effective, high-quality voice solutions," said Jim Kruger, Polycom vice president of Solutions Product Marketing.

    He added: "With more and more businesses gravitating toward cloud-based solutions, features like HD voice, integration with key business applications, and other powerful IP-enabled features have become an increasingly important component of any communications solution."

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  • 8×8 Awarded Virtual Telephone Extension Patent

    8×8 has been granted United States Patent entitled "Virtual Telephone Extension." The patent relates to methods of routing communications to users and associated equipment by utilizing a user identifier that serves as a virtual extension number.

    By utilizing the invention described by the patent, users can remotely direct their calls to communication devices at various geographic, voicemail and email destinations.

    Claim 14 of the new patent reads, "A method for routing telephone calls to communication devices using telephone networks, each communication device having a unique device identifier, the method comprising: assigning identifier data to each of a plurality of users, the identifier data for each user including at least two unique telephone numbers and at least one unique device identifier; and in response to receiving a call through one of the telephone networks, matching a telephone number in the call with one of the at least two telephone numbers assigned to a particular user, and switching the call to a destination communication device designated by the device identifier in the identifier data for the particular user."

    The issued patent contains twenty claims and was filed in 2002.

    According to 8×8, since its establishment in 1987, the company has been awarded seventy-six United States patents covering a variety of voice and video communications, signaling, processing and storage technologies.

  • 8×8 Announces Voice over 3G Update to its iPhone App

    8×8 announced that an update to its Virtual Office Mobile application which supports business voice services over 3G is now available in the Apple iTunes app store for iPhone and iPod Touch models.

    The update to the 8×8 software application follows Apple’s recent removal of restrictions preventing VoIP applications from running on 3G networks.

    Originally released as a service which required access to a Wi Fi network connection, the new 8×8’s release enables the subscribers to utilize their business phone number or extension and service remotely from within any 3G coverage area or Wi Fi zone.

    8×8 Virtual Office Mobile extends the functionality of any Virtual Office extension to the iPhone or iPod Touch platforms to enable mobile access to the features, functionality of the 8×8 Virtual Office hosted PBX phone service, including unlimited inbound and outbound domestic calling as well as overseas calling.

    "We are pleased to be one of the first VoIP service providers to offer iPhone users an opportunity to experience the capabilities and cost savings of our hosted PBX platform from any 3G footprint, which is transforming the way businesses of all sizes are managing their day to day communications," said 8×8 Chairman & CEO Bryan Martin.

    8×8 Virtual Office Mobile is available as a free download in the App Store and can be added to existing 8×8 Virtual Office service plans for $4.99 per extension per month.

    The application is also available as a bundled service in 8×8’s recently announced 8×8 Virtual Office Pro Unified Communications solution which is available to existing Virtual Office unlimited, metered or global extension subscribers for an additional $20 per extension per month.

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