Polycom in talks with telcos to offer video-to-video services

Co to use CloudAxis for the service, will let users add anyone on Skpye, Facebook, Google Talk, other business applications

Polycom Inc, a Nasdaq-listed over $1.5-billion company that provides unified communications and collaboration solutions, is in talks with telecom operators in India to offer video-to-video services using its RealPresence CloudAxis Suite, according to Balaji Iyer, general manager, India Innovation Centre.

Launched recently, CloudAxis lets users to add anyone on Skype, Facebook, Google Talk and other business video applications to video conferences from their laptop, smart phone or tablet browsers. It also allows users to drag and drop participants into a meeting, send meeting invites using instant messenger or email and share content with all participants.

“The proliferation of smart phones, coupled with better connectivity with 3G and 4G networks, is forcing users to adopt video conferencing. And, Polycom’s idea is to take CloudAxis to the masses. Where else can we do it other than in markets like India and China for mass adoption?” he told mediapersons here on Wednesday.

Polycom, which has been in the business of video conferencing since the last 23 years, already works with all the major telecom service providers and has specific labs for testing carrier grade solutions. In telecommunications parlance, a carrier grade is a hardware or a software component that is reliable, well-tested and proven in its capabilities.

According to Pavan Kumar P, sales manager (Andhra Pradesh), Polycom, they have just started approaching companies in India with PoCs (proof of concepts) in a bid to find out some of the potential customers in terms of displaying the strength of CloudAxis.

Stating that the company’s R&D centres in Hyderabad and Bangalore, with a combined innovation team of a little over 300, had played a major role in developing CloudAxis, Iyer said the India centres had almost 90 per cent ownership on all the voice products developed by Polycom.

“India is slow in adopting VoIP (voice-over Internet protocol) as the federal government is examining the legality of it. Once these hurdles are cleared, we will see our products selling more in India,” Iyer said.