CounterPath Transforms How Operators Deploy Softphones with New Server and Patented Plug-and-Play Technology

CounterPath’s Client Configuration Server is designed to enable enterprises and service providers such as telcos, cable providers and ITSPs to deploy and manage their own CCS solution, a key node for any softphone or SIP endpoint deployment. Featuring a clean and intuitive user interface, the CCS enables service providers to automatically apply the proper configuration to each end-user device, periodically update those configurations and remotely upgrade client-side software.

“Service providers typically have to build their own configuration servers when deploying endpoints such as CounterPath’s softphones. Not only is that labor-intensive, it isn’t really within the operator’s core competency,” said Todd Carothers, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Products, CounterPath. “With CCS, operators can take advantage of a solution that’s not only off the shelf but specifically designed to accelerate deployment while increasing back-end efficiencies.”

CounterPath’s Client Configuration Server also provides:

• Five-Nines (99.999 percent) Reliability – The CCS is based on CounterPath’s Network Convergence Gateway (NCG) technology, ensuring carrier-class reliability.
• Standards-Based Security – All client communications are done via HTTPS.
• High Scalability – Customers can support millions of softphone/SIP endpoints.
• Flexibility – The CCS’s profile and template structure supports a wide variety of client types and end-user configurations.
• Multi-Tenanted Capabilities – A group hierarchy enables reseller scenarios and department-level administrative control within end-customer companies.
• Multiple Interfaces – The CCS is designed for both programmatic back-end systems and operations staff for configuration access on a per-tenant basis.

In addition to desktop softphones, CounterPath’s CCS can be applied to CounterPath’s mobile softphone applications for Apple’s iOS and Android devices. This architecture gives service providers and enterprises the ability to make changes to, and monitor subscriber usage of, their mobile applications across broader distribution channels, such as Value Added Resellers (VARs) and Value Added Distributors (VADs).

The CCS also helps major OEM channels manage provisioning scenarios that have a large number of in-channel constituents – VADs, VARs and resellers – and multiple end users. Major OEM channels also can use the CCS to help manage the distribution of revenue to agents in the channels, and provide audit capabilities to control how many licenses are being used and by whom.

CounterPath’s newly granted patent, No. 7,958,276, covers the automatic configuration of peripheral devices such as VoIP softphones, headsets and speakerphones. The CCS implements elements of this patent to significantly enhance and simplify device deployment and management within a service provider or enterprise environment. The patent enables device and software configuration to be performed automatically both when the software is started and on important events such as a user unplugging or attaching a headset.

The patent also provides the ability to save and restore multiple configurations based on a variety of conditions, a major asset in mobile environments. When combined with the CCS, this feature enables IT services to achieve zero-touch deployments across the field.

“CounterPath’s new patent enables zero-touch device configuration,” Carothers said. “The launch of our Client Configuration Server and the receipt of this latest patent together demonstrate CounterPath’s commitment to simplifying the softphone experience from implementation to end user and dedication to helping service providers be successful in their go-to-market VoIP strategies.”