Voxeo Adds VoIP Party Line App to Facebook

Thought I'd share some interesting Facebook VoIP application news from Voxeo. Their Voxeo Prophecy Platform is being deployed by Equals in conjunction with the popular social networking site, Facebook. Equals Party Line adds voice to social networking by enabling group phone chats that can be instantly launched with a mouse click right from Facebook. Facebook members can alternatively dial 877 4 BUZZ ME (1-877-428-9963) from their mobile phone and Equals will dial out and add the other users to the Party Line. Full news after the jump...
EQUALS PARTY LINE™ APPLICATION CALLS ON VOXEO PLATFORM TO BRING VOICE TO SOCIAL NETWORKING

Group Phone Chat Application Launched on Facebook;
Leverages Voxeo’s SIP Platform and CCXML Engine for IVR,
IP Telephony and Instantaneous Conferencing

ORLANDO, FL—April 22, 2008—Voxeo Corporation, a leading provider of premise and hosted Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and VoIP applications, announced today that Equals, a unified communications company that is defining social communications, has selected the Voxeo Prophecy Platform for the development and delivery of its new Party Line™ application on Facebook.

Party Line adds voice to social networking by enabling group phone chats that can be instantly launched with a single mouse click right from Facebook. Facebook members can alternatively dial 877 4 BUZZ ME (1 877 428 9963) from their mobile phone and Equals will dial out and add the other users to the Party Line. Users can create an unlimited number of Party Lines ranging from movie and dinner friends to golf buddies – with each Party Line consisting of up to five people. The application is free, set up is easy, and there are no software downloads, conference bridge numbers or passcodes to remember.

Equals selected Voxeo’s SIP-based Prophecy Platform for the development and delivery of the Party Line application. Support for standards such as VoiceXML offered Equals an easy way to bring their web interface to the telephone and Voxeo’s CCXML (Call Control XML) engine enabled the development of Party Line’s robust conferencing and IP telephony capabilities, all communicating via SIP, but without the complexities of low level coding.

“Voxeo’s powerful SIP platform and development helped us deliver on our vision of enhancing social networking through the addition of instantaneous social engagement via voice,” said Scott Shepherd, Vice President of Business Development at Equals. “There are 64 million active Facebook users currently. We believe the Party Line application will spread quickly as users experience how easy it is to instantly connect with their friends and co-workers whenever and wherever they want. Voxeo provides us with a proven solution, the deployment options we need to scale with demand, and the flexibility to add planned features and communication applications in the future.”

While Equals’ Party Line application is initially being distributed through Facebook, the application is designed to work natively with open standards such as OpenSocial for easy distribution as a web widget across other social networks and web destinations that adopt OpenSocial.

“With Party Line, Equals has bridged social networking and voice in a truly unique and compelling way,” said John Amein, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Voxeo. “We expect them to grow significantly in the future and Voxeo’s platform has the capability and flexibility to support this growth.”