Twisted Pair Solutions and Fpweb.net Partner to Deliver Interoperability as a Service (IaaS) to Public Sector Organizations

Seattle, WA.  April 14th, 2009 - Twisted Pair Solutions (www.twistpair.com), a pioneer in unified group communications software built on open standards and Fpweb.net, a managed hosting services pioneer, today announced that they have formed a partnership to provide Interoperability as a Service (IaaS) solutions powered by WAVE software technology.  Many communications interoperability projects built around proprietary hardware solutions fail to get off the ground because they are too expensive, even with grant assistance.  This hosted WAVE solution offers clients the opportunity to quickly and cost-effectively achieve their inter-agency communications goals using the best of cloud computing and mission-critical voice systems.  

IaaS extends to customers a familiar model used for providing telephony and internet access services.  Organizations commonly deploy private communication systems for their internal voice communications and similarly operate and control their own local area IP networks.  In order to be broadly interoperable with others, however, each of these organizations draws access and interconnection services from a variety of service providers.  In this very same way, IaaS is intended to provide the service for organizations to connect their private push-to-talk radio systems, extending their access not only to others within their agency, but also – where appropriate and authorized – to neighboring constituent agencies.  Just as voice and data services have converged to be carried over IP networks, IaaS provides inter-agency interoperability via Radio over IP (RoIP) technologies.  

David Daniels, Fire Chief and Emergency Services Administrator for the City of Renton, Washington, welcomes any opportunity to deliver greater communications interoperability amongst the first responder community and appreciates the many operational and financial benefits that a managed service would provide.  He says, “Too often we’ve limited ourselves to discussion about radios, when we should be having conversation about the full range of communications options. The City of Renton, like other cities in Washington and around this country, continually has to revisit its plans for wider communications interoperability because of the high cost of radio equipment that we taxpayers are finding more and more difficult to justify.  Any alternate technologies that can enhance and extend what we already have, and is proven in its ability to deliver a mission-critical communications service, has my attention.”    

IaaS offers a compelling alternative to large capital-funded projects because it presents a low risk approach to achieving a high level of interoperability, while offering an affordable and attractive pay-as-you-need-it managed service.  In addition, interoperability can be expanded beyond the bounds of the subscribing agency by having access to other subscribers of the managed service.   This service can be utilized by organizations of any size, regardless of the technology used by them for their intra-agency communications.

 “We’ve had the opportunity to advance and harden the technology behind IaaS through several years of operational experience ranging from battlefield communications to dispatch and network operations center command and control,” said Tom Guthrie, President and CEO at Twisted Pair Solutions. “It’s time now to extend the operational value of this proven technology through a broad service offering, leveraging the scale and economy of cloud computing to provide a technically superior and highly cost-effective option to public sector organizations.”

“Many State or local interoperability projects are facing delays, downgrades or complete cancellation because the legislature or governing bodies have balked at their multi-million dollar price tags.   The purpose of this new service is to provide an immediate option for these organizations to extend the life and utility of systems they already have today, yet enable a much broader reach of inter-agency communications than what is enabled simply by the deployment of consistent radio system technology,” adds Guthrie. “Because WAVE is a software technology platform, IaaS can scalably deliver the capability, flexibility and cost advantages that hardware alone simply cannot. “

Critics of software-based interoperability solutions point to a perceived lack of industry standards as a reason why public sector radio users should proceed with hardware upgrades.  The Bridging Systems Interface (BSI), a Department of Homeland Security-sponsored VoIP specification for SIP-based bridging, and co-authored by Twisted Pair Solutions, has already been ratified and will help accelerate the deployment of large scale interoperable communications networks using solutions from vendors that show compliance.  Operating as the interface between two bridging or gateway devices that can be used to connect disparate radio systems, the BSI is utilized in IaaS as one of the standardized means of access to the service.

Rob LaMear, Chief Executive Officer at Fpweb.net, is excited about the new software-as-a-service offering from Twisted Pair and his company. He says, “Not only does it make great economic sense for all first responders, but it has the potential to remedy a major weakness in our national infrastructure.  WAVE is a battle hardened technology and hosted WAVE will be fed by the massive Fpweb.net cloud of redundant servers and data centers.”

In addition to the obvious cost-driven benefits of IaaS for larger projects, there is also a need for smaller organizations to affordably acquire solutions that employ software and networking technologies with which they may not be familiar. Many of these smaller organizations simply do not have the personnel resources necessary to develop and manage an effective interoperability solution and simply put the idea to the bottom of their list of projects. 

Twisted Pair and Fpweb.net are currently offering a 90-day free proof-of-concept trial to potential users. General availability of IaaS is expected in 2H 2009.  More information is available at www.twistpair.com/WAVE90.