TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Jan. 11, 2012) – Sangoma Technologies Corporation (TSX VENTURE:STC), a leading provider of hardware and software components that enable or enhance IP Communications Systems for both voice and data, today announced that that Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC), a global media company, has named its Vega 5000: Analog Media Gateway as a recipient of the 2011 INTERNET TELEPHONY Product of the Year Award.

“We are delighted that the editors and executives TMC and Internet Telephony Magazine have recognized the Vega 5000 for its reliability and flexibility in solving the interconnectivity issues that continually challenge network service providers and enterprises,” said Frederic Dickey, director of product management of Sangoma. “As more and more customers look to leverage cloud- and IP-based applications and features, gateways like the Vega 5000 will become an essential solution for connecting these emerging solutions with legacy hardware and network service.”

Designed to simplify the integration of legacy voice communications systems with an IP infrastructure, the Vega 5000 provides companies with a cost-effective option for leveraging new IP-based technologies within their existing infrastructure. The Vega 5000 is a 1u rack-mountable chassis supporting from 16 to 50 FXS ports for analog telephone stations, two FXO ports for PSTN connectivity, and full-duplex Ethernet connectivity to an IP infrastructure. It provides support for many popular voice codecs and protocols for voice, fax and modem connectivity, and has built-in enterprise-class calling and call control features such as least cost routing, call waiting, call forwarding, conference and hold. Designed to meet the requirements of telecom service providers, the Vega 5000 is certified to be connected to public and IP networks throughout the world.

According to Alexander Orlov, chief technology officer for ThreeLine, a telecommunications equipment provider located in Russia, the Vega 5000 is ideal for delivering robust voice services in high density residential deployments. "Our customers are very satisfied with both the reliability and cost-savings they’ve achieved by deploying the Sangoma Vega 5000 Gateway. This solution allows service providers and enterprises to extend the lifecycle of their existing network infrastructure, as well as roll out IP services to users. These capabilities have a very profound impact on their bottom line."

Sangoma provides an industry-leading portfolio of TDM to IP telephony interworking solutions, including award-winning boards, transcoding and gateway software, and standalone gateway appliances designed for simple integration with open source and closed source voice communications technologies.

"Sangoma is committed to provide agile solutions that bridge existing and emerging technologies. While we are justifiably proud of the Vega family of gateway appliances, it represents just one piece of our rapidly expanding portfolio that is designed to serve the evolving needs of service providers and businesses," concluded Dickey.

For more information about the Sangoma portfolio of IP telephony solutions, please see the Sangoma website here

It indicates there is a recognised leader in the industry for the specific area being compared. Such is the case with Xorcom and Digium.

The latter has finally come out with a resiliency solution for Asterisk and is trying to demonstrate that they now have a more cost-effective and robust resiliency solution than Xorcom.

You can view the full clarifications about Digium R-Series vs Xorcom TwinStar comparison article here.

VoIPon: Broadcasting from various countries around the world using voice over IP technology, this is VoIP Uncovered — A VoIPon Solutions UK podcast.  Representing, VoIPon, I’m Kathleen Reed.

Today, we’re happy to have the folks from Sangoma, a leading provider of hardware and software components that enable or enhance IP communication systems for both voice and data join us again today to bring us up to speed on the latest developments at their company.

Joining us today is Bill Wignall, their president and CEO and Jeff Dworkin, their director of marketing. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.

So, I’m going to jump right in with the first question. In the last year, Sangoma has undergone a lot of changes; can you share VoIPon’s listeners what’s going on with the company and why the Sangoma channel and end users should be excited about these developments?

Bill Wignall: Sure Kathleen thanks. Well, 2011 is truly a year of reinvention for Sangoma. I came in to take over the reigns at Sangoma about one year ago, and since then, we’ve completely rebuilt the executive management team and established an entirely new strategic direction for the company. Even with the reputation of the highest quality products in the industry, the company’s evolution had slowed and we had experienced flat sales for the couple of years. The new leadership team has reignited the growth engine and that’s the big change internally at Sangoma.

But frankly, customers and partners don’t care so much about that. They care about new products, more engineering talent to help support them and their applications. They care about having Sangoma staff closer to them. That’s how we’re driving these renewed growth initiatives.

We’re focused on delivering more value to those customers and to our distribution partners around the world. We’ve begun to see some results in just the first three quarters together as an executive team our quarterly sales are about 30%.

We dramatically expanded our product road map; we’ve launched aggressive new marketing programs and hired key new experienced senior sales executives in regions closer to the customers. And we have begun expanding our addressable market beyond traditional telephony interface boards into new product categories to both organic initiatives and via selected acquisitions.

VoIPon: Okay. So, speaking of acquisitions, recently Sangoma acquired Vegastream effectively entering the appliance market, which by some had been long awaited and by others might be considered controversial. So, how’s the channel responding?

Bill Wignall: One of the fundamental objectives at Sangoma is to do exactly that: Diversify beyond the telecom interface boards market, a space in which we’ve been a dominant player for a number of years. Months ago, our executive team identified they are ready to deploy appliance market as one of those areas in to which we should to expand. So, you’ll see many new appliance space products from Sangoma over the next year. And that category is where gateways come in.

We actually plan to develop our gateway products ourselves. But once we got into the development cycle planning, we decided to needed these products now. Not in the year plus that would take us to build them.

So we decided to acquire Vegastream to expand our presence from our legacy market segments, which will remain critical for us. And Vegastream gives us a bunch of advantages: great products, an office in UK to better serve our European customers, and expanded distribution network with little overlap to existing partners.

Vegastream was stuck in neutral due to problems with manufacturing and supply chain management and Sangoma has a history of being really good at doing these things.  We get new customers in a variety of geographic regions including India and Russia and we got an excellent team of both engineering and sales.

So, you could imagine with those advantages, the response from the channel is overwhelmingly positive. We have increased the options available to deliver on their customer’s needs. This expands the addressable market for those partners. Now, when a customer requires an external appliance, as part of their solution, Sangoma can deliver. We simply want it to be able to offer both solutions. Internal cards that get inserted into servers and external appliances, it’s that simple.

Kathleen: Fantastic. So, recently you announced revised pricing on the A500 BRI card and a firmware update that directly integrates with DAHDI, so the customers with lower density systems can effectively save up to 50% on the price of systems of 4 ports or less. Have you seen a shift to lower density systems in the EMEA and what other trends have come to light for this market?

Bill Wignall: Sure Kathleen. Well, Jeff, why don’t you take this one?

Jeff Dworkin: Sure. Well, since as Bill mentioned above are corporate objective for the coming years, 2012 especially, one of our goals is to build our key business in international markets. So, this was done in direct response to sort of better serve the European and generally, the entire EMEA market.

So, we recently hired a UK sales channel manager and this is one of the first things he sort of brought to the table, that we weren’t really getting the most bang for our buck with our BRI technology. We made these changes, they’ve sort of been on roadmap but they get crashed and accelerated, so we could better deliver on this very particular segment now. It doesn’t mean we’ve really seen a big shift to lower density systems. Again, it was more of just a response to what our channel manager saw: is that we were missing out on any of this lower density solutions and opportunities because we didn’t have this direct integration with the DAHDI driver for Asterisk. And, we were creating extra expense by requiring people to have hardware-based echo cancellation on these lower density systems, which is really necessary.

So, again, we lower the price, we fixed up our driver, and now we are really ready to attack this particular segment. So, this is really why it’s important that regionally placed sales people. You know, Steve came in and he really got a sense of what the local market needed and help us turn out into a product and hopefully new opportunity very quickly.

VoIPon: Fantastic. So, in terms of the market, where does Sangoma see the telephony marketing in general heading next?

Bill Wignall: Hmm, that’s a tough question Kathleen. You know, Sangoma doesn’t really focus on what the next single big thing will be. Our strategy involves selecting multiple products categories that target many of the key trends in our industry. So you will see us launch products that make use of the cloud and social networking, as just a couple of examples.

But if Sangoma had to prognosticate onto the year ahead, we’d say that perhaps 2012 will not be year, where we see a single new revolutionary technology, like tablets for instance. But rather might be a year of integration or update. We feel this way due to the fact that several new technologies have really just emerged recently, and because of the economic uncertainty, especially in Europe. When much financial uncertainty exists, companies and network operators tend to focus more on adopting efficiency improvements rather than on revolutionary technology.

So, offerings like SIP or VoIP will get fully more integrated into the fabric of business communications. Every business from the SOHO to the international enterprise will only be talking about when we will move to these technologies not if.  

Newer offerings like the cloud or the tablet usage will move out of the innovation, pilot and early adopters phase and move into the mainstream of business regular operations. We fully expect Sangoma to benefit from those trends as well.

Kathleen: Ok, excellent. Well, I want to thank both of you for your time today and for bringing VoIPon’s listeners up to speed on the latest developments.

This has been a VoIPon, VoIP uncovered podcast. For more information, please visit www.voipon.co.uk.

Sangoma Releases Version 4 of NetBorder SS7 Media Gateway (formerly known as SMG)

Sangoma SS7 Media Gateway Solutions continue to evolve with the release of Sangoma NetBorder SS7 Media Gateway (or NSG), formerly known as Sangoma Media Gateway (SMG). Improvements in this version include the addition of Telco grade SS7 protocol stacks with multiple ISUP variants, a single ISO-based installation process, and a web-based GUI for easier installation, configuration and management of the system.

Sangoma ISDN BRI Board Now Supports Dadhi Natively

The latest WANPIPE drivers (version 3.5), released on August 25, add the native support of Dadhi for our Sangoma A500 ISDN BRI line interface boards. Customers using our Sangoma A500 boards can now benefit from the native support of the BRI protocol in Asterisk, as well as leveraging software based echo cancellation when appropriate.

Modular and any installation scenario is possible from low to high density with modules for PRI, BRI, FXS, FXO, BRI-FXS Combo and now GSM.

The OS is on-board, so you get driver-free Plug’n Play 5 minute installations, build-in echo cancellation and even T.38 Fax.

Best of all, you buy manufacturer direct and save money, get a dedicated account manager, updates and Free training.

There is a module for everything

The business operations of VegaStream will be quickly integrated into Sangoma’s, with VegaStream staff being welcomed as part of the respective Sangoma teams, the majority being in R&D and Sales and Marketing. The VegaStream products will become part of the Sangoma portfolio with customers rapidly benefiting from Sangoma’s reputation for efficient supply chain management and quick turnaround of customer orders.

Sangoma is investing in new marketing, sales and product development initiatives, and this transaction is further evidence of such investments to drive ongoing growth. The acquisition of VegaStream helps Sangoma to achieve several of its strategic objectives: broadening its portfolio, adding to its distribution network, delivering existing channel partners a more comprehensive set of products, affording Sangoma an EU office to enable better service to this critical part of the world in local time zones, expanding its customer base and customer segments (including more network operators), and penetrating more deeply into developing regions, including significant upside in the key market of India with some excellent large clients.

“VegaStream has some truly great products, people, customers and distributors”, said Bill Wignall, President and CEO of Sangoma. Wignall continued, “As the IP Communications market evolves, Sangoma is re-inventing itself in order to become a significant player in more segments within that market. This acquisition supports one of our key corporate messages, ‘We are not just a board company anymore’. For years, Sangoma has provided the industry’s leading portfolio of TDM to IP cards for use inside servers, and we will continue to dominate that space. However, external gateways which provide much of the same functionality but reside outside the server as their own appliance, are becoming increasingly popular, and we want to offer our customers both options. External gateways expand our addressable market, can be easily integrated into Virtualized and Cloud based solutions, and so we hope to capture additional opportunities in this space as well as in our traditional segment. We decided to accelerate our entry to this market segment, using a ‘buy versus build’ decision, adding the well-respected VegaStream products to our portfolio. I expect this transaction will create value for Sangoma shareholders and customers alike.” We plan to continue our growth by both organic means and a few more strategically selected acquisitions.

Alexis Argent, Sales Manager at VoIPon in the UK stated, “As a customer/partner of both Sangoma and VegaStream, we believe that this acquisition will allow us to meet even more of our customers’ demands with a more comprehensive portfolio from a much stronger partner in Sangoma. We look forward to being able to offer enterprise customers and network operators their choice of either internal cards or external gateways for their IP networking needs.”

This is an all cash purchase and no new shares are being issued by Sangoma as part of this transaction. The company paid £0.9M (approximately $1.4M) in cash, subject to some minor closing adjustments, for all of the key assets of VegaStream which were partly purchased through an administration process in the UK. In addition to the operating assets, Sangoma purchased the VegaStream share of VSNPL, a JV in India. Sangoma expects the VegaStream assets to begin to contribute to the company’s earnings during the second half of fiscal 2012 once it has integrated these operations and ramped up production, and be accretive for fiscal 2013.

About Sangoma Technologies Corporation

Sangoma is a leading provider of hardware and software products that enable or enhance IP Communications Systems for both telecom and datacom applications. Enterprises, SMBs and Carriers in over 150 countries rely on Sangoma’s technology as part of their mission critical infrastructures. Through its worldwide network of Distribution Partners, Sangoma delivers the industry’s best engineered, highest quality products, and offers the industry’s first lifetime warranty. The product line includes data and telecom boards for media and signal processing as well as gateway appliances and software.

Founded in 1984, Sangoma Technologies Corporation is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX VENTURE:STC). Additional information on Sangoma can be found at: www.sangoma.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the future success of our business, development strategies and future opportunities.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning estimates of expected expenditures, statements relating to expected future production and cash flows, and other statements which are not historical facts. When used in this document, the words such as “could”, “plan”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “potential”, “should” and similar expressions indicate forward-looking statements.

Although Sangoma believes that its expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date that the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. Sangoma undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management’s estimates or opinions should change except as required by law.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other events contemplated by the forward-looking statements will not occur. Although Sangoma believes that the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct as these expectations are inherently subject to business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Some of the risks and other factors which could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements contained in the management’s discussion and analysis include, but are not limited to changes in exchange rate between the Canadian Dollar and other currencies, changes in technology, changes in the business climate, changes in the regulatory environment, the decline in the importance of the PSTN and new competitive pressures. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Local survivability allows a remote office that uses a centralised SIP PBX to be able to continue operating independently if the SIP PBX or the IP network connection to the SIP PBX fails.

The ApplianX IP Gateway from Aculab passively monitors all SIP phone registrations from the remote office. Using ‘SIP Options’ it continually checks on the availability of the SIP PBX. The gateway can detect the loss of the SIP PBX and takes over the routing of all internal and external PSTN calls. It also detects when the connectivity to the SIP PBX has been restored and re-registers the SIP phones with the SIP PBX, seamlessly returning them to ‘normal’ operation.

How Does it Work?

Please Contact Us to discuss how ApplianX IP Gateway can save you from the survivability crisis.

• Support for ISDN BRI point to point and point to multipoint lines
• The availability of configuration templates, allowing direct NBE configuration integrated with I-PBX platforms
• Smart updates. You can now update and upgrade the software directly from the Web management interface, without losing your configuration
• Compatibility with 3CX and SnomOne IPBX systems

Specification

We would also like to remind our customers that NBE is free to download and use for up to 12 ports. If you need more capacity, you need to purchase a software license. All you need to get started is a Sangoma compatible card. Not sure which cards are compatible? Please Contact Us for more information.

NetBorder Express software, together with Sangoma’s computer telephony boards, is a complete SIP-compliant VoIP Media Gateway solution, delivering the most flexible and cost effective solution by removing the need for external gateways.

Compatible with Analog FXO and FXS, MFC/R2, ISDN BRI and PRI telephony interfaces, NetBorder Express can scale from 2 to 480 simultaneous calls, providing excellent value and flexibility for deployments in any geography.

NetBorder Express communicates with applications such as IP-PBXs, speech enabled IVRs, conferencing servers, contact center or trunking gateways directly with the ubiquitous SIP control protocol to reduce deployment time, complexity and cost for next generation network application deployments.

NetBorder Express software is licensed via a simple online process. You can download a free SOHO version, which is full-featured for up to 12 ports. If you need more than 12 ports, a commercial license is required. Sangoma Telephony hardware must be purchased separately.

NetBorder Express is a full-fledged VoIP Gateway delivered as a software application. NetBorder Express version 4.0 support the following:

PSTN protocol termination:

• Analog FXO/FXS (with A200 or B600 hardware)
• ISDN PRI (with A100 hardware)
  - North American variants
  - EuroISDN
  - NEW Japan variant (INS1500)
• NEW ISDN BRI (with A500 and B700 hardware)
• NEW MFC/R2 (with A100 hardware)
• Capacity from 2 to 480 channels of simultaneous calls per system

VoIP protocol termination:

• TCP or UDP
• SIP Control Protocol per RFC 3261
• RTP/RTCP per RFC 3550/3551

Security

• TLS per RFC 5246
• SRTP per RFC 3711
• NEW HTTP Digest authentication

Media Processing

• G.168-2002 Echo Cancellation with hardware option
• DTMF over RTP per RFC 2833. International and custom tone detection and generation
• Voice Activity Detection and Comfort Noise Generation (VAD/CNG)
• NEW T.38 Fax relay

Software License

• NEW Default SOHO license available for download for up to 12 ports
• Commercial software licenses required above 12 ports
  - 25 digits license ID provided upon purchase
  - License ID and Server MAC address required for Web registration and download of software
  - License file host locked

Application Compatibility:

• Microsoft Lync
• 3CX
• SnomOne
• Voxeo
• Genesys SIP Server
• Any other standard SIP application
• NetBorder Express can be installed on the same server or on a dedicated server

Compatible Sangoma Hardware:

• Analog FXO and FXS
  - A200
  - NEW B600
• ISDN BRI
  - NEW A500
  - NEW B700
• MFC/R2
  - A101, A102, A104, A108
• ISDN PRI
  - A101, A102, A104, A108
• Notes:
  - Hardware must be purchased separately
  - Hardware echo cancellation option is mandatory for NetBorder ExpressNetBorder Express software installs compatible board drivers automatically. There is no need to obtain board drivers separately
  - Each specific NetBorder Express software version is tested against a specific version of the firmware that comes loaded on Sangoma hardware. It may be required to upgrade the firmware of the boards at installation time. At installation time, NetBorder notifies the administrator and provides instructions to perform this step
  - Consult NetBorder Express Release Notes for more details

Management and Configuration

• Web Server
• Web Services API
• Configuration files for easy integration into OEM applications
• SNMP DS0, DS1 and Call Stats MIBS
• Contextual Help Menus
• Extensive Logging
• Automatic Board Discovery
• Open Protocol Translation and XML based routing rules
• Configurable ISDN PRI to SIP Mapping per RFC 3398

Minimum Server Specs

• Intel or AMD processors
• Dual Core processor or later
• 1 GB of RAM or better

2N BRI Enterprise

Advantages

• Saves money
• Remote supervision via GSM
• Counting free minutes
• DialThru mode
• Sending/receiving SMS
• Auto CLIP Routing
• CallBack
• Optional Ethernet interface

The 2N BRI Enterprise is another GSM/UMTS Gateway in the 2N portfolio using a digital ISDN BRI interface for connection to the telephone exchange. One difference between the 2N BRI Enterprise and 2N BRI Lite is that the Enterprise version makes it possible to use TE and NT ports at the same time, i.e. in the through-put (DialThru) mode. This mode not only enables you to save money, but also ports for a private branch exchange and the time necessary for installation.

The 2N BRI Enterprise Gateway features all the functions of the BRI Lite. Counting free minutes with an efficient automated cost-saving solution create an ideal tool for reducing call charge costs. The CallBack service eliminates roaming fees on business trips abroad and sending and receiving SMS from PC is also a cinch.

The 2N BRI Enterprise version with an Ethernet port allows remote setting of the gateway and its administration via the IP network. You can also administer the gateway using a data connection via the GSM network, which makes it unique compared to other ISDN GSM gateways on the market. The sooner you opt for the 2N BRI Enterprise, the sooner you start to enjoy its easy-to-use functions and save on company overheads.

2N BRI Lite

Advantages

• Saves money
• Remote monitoring via GSM
• Counting free minutes
• Sending/receiving SMS
• Auto CLIP Routing
• CallBack
• Possibility to select between a TE/NT port

The 2N BRI Lite makes superb use of 2N Telekomunikace production know-how in the sector of GSM and UMTS Gateways. All its functions pursue a single common goal – to simplify and especially to cut the cost of solutions for your company’s communication needs. Just like other ISDN GSM Gateways, you can connect it to any private branch exchange with a digital ISDN BRI interface. At the same time, you can choose whether you want to connect the gateway to a TE or NT port.

The functions of a 2N BRI Lite also include counting free minutes on inserted SIM cards and sending or receiving SMS messages from a PC. If your staff spend a lot of time outside their office, you will certainly appreciate another SMS service sending a missed call message to the respective mobile phone number showing the caller’s number. For foreign business trips, the CallBack service eliminates roaming charges.

As soon as you connect the gateway to your private branch exchange, you start to significantly save on telecommunication charges. The 2N BRI Lite will become one of the quickest returns on investment you have ever made in your company.

2N Helios IP

Advantages

• Stylish door communicator
• One-box solution
• Cisco certified
• Full duplex audio
• Video
• Remote administration

The 2N Helios IP is a door communicator that perfectly combines state-of-the-art technology with a unique design. It is a communication system supporting both voice and video transmission, all in the IP environment by means of the SIP protocol.

The 2N Helios IP is an ideal product for any door communication environment. It can be utilised in companies as well as households, and thanks to numerous accessories, such as a display, card reader, attendance system or keyboard, we can satisfy a wide range of customers. It is a highly user-friendly device with easy installation and can be set via a web interface.

The 2N Helios IP door communicator is made of high quality steel, resistant to all ambient conditions. This ensures a long service life and stable appearance even when installed outdoors. The Helios IP will simply charm all your visitors – even before they enter.

2N OfficeRoute

Advantages

• Free calls within the company
• High-speed Internet connection (up to 7.2 Mbps)
• FAX sending
• Mobility Extension
• SMS sending/receiving
• IP PBX features
• Quick installation, easy maintenance

The 2N OfficeRoute is a mobile office which solves all the voice and data communication in your company without complicated installations. It allows you to call via VoIP/GSM/UMTS and supports analogue faxes. Thanks to the high-speed Internet connection by means of the UMTS network, the device can also be used as a router.

Another advantage of the 2N OfficeRoute is its internal VoiceMail with SMS server and the possibility it provides for sending messages from the web or directly from an email client. Using the 2N Mobility Extension feature you will be available anywhere, whether in or out of the office.

The 2N OfficeRoute is the optimal solution especially for SOHOs and SMEs who need IP communication. It will enable you to combine all necessary functionalities in one device, on top of which you will achieve significant savings on calling costs.

2N OfficeRoute is available in two versions: UMTS/GSM or GSM only (without UMTS module).