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The future of wireless voice communications is high-quality, low-cost and highly flexible VoIP. CounterPath Corporation is helping to make that future today with the worldwide availability of the Bria iPhone Edition for Apple's (News - Alert) (News - Alert) popular iPhone (News - Alert), iPad and iPod Touch, with more such solutions for other devices on the way.

 

The Bria iPhone Edition is a highly secure, standards-based VoIP softphone that works over both 3G and Wi-Fi networks. By having VoIP at users' fingertips, device owners and users can scale back if not eliminate costly voice calling plans, just as they did when VoIP began to supplant PSTN for wireline, while obtaining the full functionality including presence of IP-based unified communications systems.

 

The Bria iPhone Edition integrates seamlessly with other CounterPath (News - Alert) (News - Alert) desktop and convergence solutions, as well as with enterprise and carrier infrastructure equipment from major vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, BroadSoft, Metaswitch, Avaya, Cisco and NEC (News - Alert) (News - Alert). Bria also supports Asterisk (News - Alert)-based telephony systems.

 

The Bria iPhone Edition features key elements such as: full SIP compliance, enabling use with any SIP-compliant server and hundreds of ITSPs that currently offer CounterPath-based services; call quality that CounterPath says is superior to circuit-switched wireline and wireless voice, and based on the G.711, G.729 and GSM codecs; an intuitive user interface that provides one-touch access to voicemail, call history, speakerphone and other frequently used telephony features such as four-digit dialing; support for Bluetooth and DTMF, which lets users enter numbers to access an auto attendant; multi-call management options, including the ability to switch between, merge and split calls, all in ways that are already familiar to iPhone users so they can start using these features immediately; signaling and call encryption via TLS and SRTP, enabling enterprise-class security; and optional customized branding available for enterprises and telephony providers.

 

The Bria iPhone Edition appears as another endpoint to service providers or PBX (News - Alert) equipment, enabling fast, cost-effective deployments

"The new Bria iPhone Edition is what a VoIP softphone should be for the Apple iOS family of devices," said Todd Carothers, vice President of product management, CounterPath. "Our customers have asked us to provide a high-quality solution for the mobile device market, and Bria iPhone Edition meets that challenge. As the leading SIP-based softphone for the desktop, we leveraged our experience to release a product that has been built with both the consumer and enterprise customer in mind."

"There are already more than 75 million iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad owners today who can potentially use our Bria iOS softphone," Carothers added. "This release is another milestone in bringing the Bria experience to a wider range of mobile devices. Within the next six months, we'll add versions offering even more features and support for additional mobile operating systems, further extending Bria's reach into the massively growing mobile market."

 

The Bria iPhone Edition is the latest CounterPath solution for mobile platforms and its first standalone mobile SIP application. Earlier this year, CounterPath launched Linux, Mac and Windows versions of Bria, all of which received strong approval and endorsement from Internet telephony service providers and telecom infrastructure vendors. In addition to the Bria-branded version, CounterPath will also be developing customized white-label versions of Bria iPhone Edition for carriers, OEMs and enterprise customers worldwide through its professional services team.

One hundred percent compatible with Apple's iPhone 3.0 and new iOS (formerly iPhone 4.0), the CounterPath softphone client takes advantage of the growing number of SMEs, large enterprises and governments that are deploying iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads for mobile workers. Many of their staff requires full access to their communications services while away from their desks or offices. Bria iPhone Edition leverages the iPhone's native address book and its embedded Bluetooth technology to provide a seamless calling experience while on the move.

Apple currently ranks third in smartphone shipments, with 16 percent of all units in the category in Q1 2010, according to several analyst firms. For all handset types - smartphones and feature phones - Apple is No. 6, with more than 8.7 million shipped worldwide in Q1. 

"When you factor in the number of business professionals switching to the iPhone, and add in the iPod Touch user base and the two million iPads sold in that device's first two months, this adds up to an enormous opportunity for widespread global adoption of Bria iPhone Edition," said Donovan Jones (News - Alert), CEO of CounterPath.