3 Threats to UC Industry Momentum

A strong market push by Google, an economic downturn, and the rise of mobile UCaaS — if they materialize — could all dampen existing players’ strong prospects.

Cisco no doubt plans to continue marketing that service to mobile network operators with its acquisition of BroadSoft — but they’re not the only player in this game. Recently Metaswitch and Mavenir have also introduced products that enable business calling features for mobile providers. Mavenir was actually at Enterprise Connect between UCaaS exhibitors — a wolf among the sheep?

Mavenir recently introduced a mobile-native UCaaS designed for SMBs. Note, Mavenir is a key supplier to T-Mobile and facilitated the launch of T-Mobile’s Digits service in 2016. Digits unbundled phone numbers from mobile devices. That’s actually a core UCaaS capability, and Mavenir has evolved its technology with enterprise calling features.

Mobile providers’ expansion into enterprise voice could have significant implications. Today, there are as many UCaaS providers as the market will bear; and may the better provider win. The number of mobile carriers is tightly controlled through regulation; nevertheless, as mobile providers expand in UCaaS, their success could come at the expense of existing UC and UCaaS vendors.