Oracle Buys Net4Call For Telecom Services Needs
The Redwood Shores, Calif., software giant bought Net4Call, an Oslo, Norway-based supplier of carrier-grade infrastructure Parlay software. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The Parlay Group is an industry consortium that aims to develop standard APIs for developing new services that integrate telecommunications and IT.
Net4Call's wares, along with the Hotsip session initiation protocol (SIP) technology Oracle has already acquired, will be part and parcel of Oracle's Service Delivery Platform, or Oracle SDP, according to a statement released Tuesday. SIP support brings instant messaging into the fold. The infrastructure also supports the SMS and MMS protocols.
Oracle SDP comprises a wide range of Oracle middleware and facilitates VoIP, mobile and realtime applications, the company said.
Shawn Willett, principal analyst with Current Analysis, said this offering would compete with similar wares from BEA Systems and IBM.
This news shows that telecommunications companies are clearly in Oracle's crosshairs. These telcos, along with large enterpirses, are working to integrate telephony with the data processing world and to be able to build and provision new hybrid applications quickly.
Oracle's carrier-grade communications infrastructure builds on the Oracle 10g database and RAC, its TimesTen In-memory Database and other parts of its software stack.
Over time, Oracle plans to add call control and charging facilities and device management, as well as mobile content delivery, VoIP and virtual PBX capabilities.
Oracle President Charles Phillips is slated to discuss Oracle SDP later on Tuesday.