Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) recently closed its acquisition of Vonage Holdings (NASDAQ:VG) in support of Ericsson’s strategy to grow its mobile network business and expand into enterprise.
The acquisition gives Ericsson the tools required to expand into such offerings as Communications Platform as a Service (CpaaS), Unified communications as a service (UcaaS) and Contact center as a service (CcaaS).
“We are excited to welcome Vonage as part of Ericsson. With Vonage’s suite of communications solutions – UCaaS, CCaaS and Communications APIs – Ericsson will further expand its offerings into the enterprise space. In the future, network capabilities will be consumed and paid for through open network APIs, creating the opportunity for unparalleled innovation,” said Börje Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson.
Recently, Vonage was named the leader in the Omdia Universe: Selecting a CpaaS Platform 2022 report, effectively ranking in top positions on customer experience and solutions capability categories. The company enjoys a service reach of over 120,000 business customers, with a global community of more htan one million registered developers and a platform, with a combined 25 billion messages and minutes per year. The business combination with Ericsson will enable the company to seed and boost the market for global network APIs.
Ericsson intends to change the way advanced 5G network capabilities are used and bought. This will give the company’s community, including Vonage’s one million registered developers, access to 4G and 5G network capabilities through its own Application Program Interfaces (API).
Greater access to network capabilities will enable developer communities to create applications for any device connected to 5G. Developers can use user authentication, bandwidth responsiveness, energy efficiency, security, identification and reliability, or if they prefer, network information like device information or predictive coverage.
“We have already launched the first network API, Dynamic End-user Boost, based on existing 4G infrastructure. With Vonage, we will now develop and commercialize these new APIs. We are already seeing great progress with frontrunner CSPs, and we aim to launch the first 5G network APIs in the coming year. We will continue to create new, enhanced applications and services for enterprises, while driving continued innovation on Vonage’s UCaaS and CCaaS applications, helping businesses create new digital experiences for better communications, connections and engagement,” said Ekholm.
Ericsson intends to increase research and development efforts to help boost growth in Vonage’s UcaaS and CcaaS solutions, and offer these solutions to communications services providers (CSP), giving existing customers the ability to sell through their own brands. Ericsson will also offer extra offerings to small and medium sized companies with the Vonage UcaaS and CcaaS solutions, therefore forming a strong part to both CSPs and enterprises.
The market for communications APIs like video, voice and SMA, is growing at 30 per cent annually and is projected to climb to USD$22 billion by 2025.
