Rob Scott was joined at the event by co-founder of 2600hz, Darren Schreiber.
Firstly Rob asks Darren about his background in the industry but also about why he co-founded 2600Hz.
“Telecoms has been a hobby since I was a kid, most people grew up asking for toys, I asked for phone wire.”
After a couple of attempts, 2600Hz was born. Darren explains the history of the name and why they chose 2600Hz. The tone was used in the 1970s and 80s to deceive the phone network to achieve free unrestricted calls. Their software, Kazoo, integrates with the phone network and sends signals between different phone companies so the parallels were there.
Darren was one of the keynote speakers at the Cavell Cloud Comms Summit and Rob asks Darren to explain his topic that was based around open source communications. Open source is free collaboration based development where the designers do not necessarily expect something back from all of those who benefit from the platform.
“It’s evolved even further, in my opinion now, to something that large corporations actually depend on. They use the open source pieces as sort of building blocks to build much larger solutions.”
Darren explains that this model has various benefits in terms of flexibility and customisation. Rob and Darren examine the open source market and discuss the pioneers in this field like Asterisk. 2600Hz are working from a very different basis aiming to solve the business provision aspect.
“We are watching people really struggle when they want to invent something new, they have to start over. Our theory was, is there a way to make this a solution package that’s more scalable and has these building blocks, but also that can be built upon with a lot less effort”
Commercialising the business was more difficult, there needs to be an incentive for payment. Darren and his partner examined different methods to make the business viable but also how maintain their initial ethos. The rise in UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS is positive for 2600Hz as they enable a platform for development.
Listen on your daily commute, whilst walking the dog, or in the gym. UC Today – Out Loud provides bite size podcasts, bringing you all of the latest communication and collaboration news.
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout, and join the conversation on LinkedIn, Twitter and email.
Presenter and Tech Journalist Patrick Watson and special guest Darren Schreiber.
