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The Year Ahead - with Voxbone's Rod Ullens
By Paula Bernier, Executive Editor, TMC
TMCnet recently asked some of the leading lights in the industry for their thoughts about 2011 and what’s in store for the year ahead.
Here’s what Rod Ullens, CEO of Voxbone, had to say.
What was your company’s greatest achievement in 2011?
Ullens: Voxbone is a young company; it was founded in 2005. Our first customers were customers that were similar to Voxbone: startups offering next-generation communication services, such as Tru, Rebtel and Jajah. 2011 was a breakthrough year, in which we signed up some of the biggest names in telecommunications, such as Skype (News 
- Alert) and iBasis. That progress confirms that our brand and its quality image have become established in the global telecommunications marketplace.
What are your business’s goals for 2012?
Ullens: In 2011, we have substantially increased our business with global B2B service providers, such as Global Crossing (News
- Alert), recently acquired by Level 3. In 2012, we plan to extend the features of our services to match needs as closely as possible. For example, we will expand our capacity to port in numbers from other voice service providers in 10 or more additional countries. We will also extend our network footprint, which currently spans 51 countries, to eight to 10 more countries in Asia and South America. Additionally, we will launch new product lines to complement our existing services. We cannot disclose a lot of information on these new products, but at least one of them will be revolutionary.
How would you describe your outlook for business and the economy at large heading into 2012?
Ullens: We expect accelerated adoption of cloud communications in the SME segment. Several factors support this projection. Our customers that offer hosted IVR, PBX and collaboration services, such as Voxeo (News - Alert), phone.com and Powwownow.com, have grown a lot in 2011. Industry giants, such as Microsoft, have invested massively in cloud communication services and have announced their first major customer wins. Big corporations will offer PBX (News - Alert) services from their internal clouds. This often cross-country centralization of enterprise telephony infrastructure will create major demand in wholesale VoIP services. We are the technological bridge between cloud communication networks and traditional PSTN and mobile networks, so Voxbone should have a great 2012.
Ullens: We would like to see countries that have had a conservative approach to VoIP so far adjust their views and embrace VoIP as a technology that can bring many advantages to consumers and enterprises in their countries. For example, VoIP services are forbidden in China and still very restricted in India. Analysts expect that India will loosen its restrictions in coming months. But it's a fact that approximately one-third of the world's population today has no access to VoIP-based services. Many of our customers are anxiously waiting for these countries to open up.
Any other thoughts you’d like to share about the year ahead?
Ullens: The massive adoption of smartphones (iPhone, Samsung (News - Alert) Android and tablets) and better integration between these smartphones and VoIP applications will create an interesting effect in one to three years. Mobile network service providers will see their lucrative SMS and voice services decrease while high-cost, low-margin mobile data services will be on the rise. We are curious to see how these operators will react.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
