Bandwidth.com, a supplier of VoIP network services to Skype, Pinger, and others, has acquired Dash Carrier Services, a provider of emergency calling telephony services (i.e. 911 calling). Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but we are told it is an all-cash deal.
Bandwidth.com provides millions of phone numbers annually and billions of minutes of calls for over 6,000 business customers in the U.S., including Skype, Pinger, Yext, and IfByPhone. For small and medium sized businesses, Bandwidth also provides integrated office phone systems, smartphones, as well as business-grade Internet connectivity. The company’s recently launched Google Voice competitor Phonebooth is a VoIP service for individuals and small businesses that provides users with a free local phone number that can be forwarded to any cell phone and landline. It also offers voicemail transcriptions, and an auto attendant feature that allows users to route callers to different employees.
Dash Carrier Services essentially allows VoIP applications to include emergency services, including 911 calls. Dash also provides 411 services, live nationwide directory listing, and other dialing services. Bandwidth was already using Dash’s emergency calling technology in its own VoIP offerings but will now be able to use the technology more broadly within its products.
Bandwidth believes that eventually the FCC will require that companies like Skype and Pinger offer emergency calling functionality, and Dash will allow the company to integrate this into their wholesale network offerings.
Together, Bandwidth and Dash are forecasted to reach over $100 million in revenues this year and both companies are profitable. Bandwidth, which just struck a deal with Verizon, for lower call connecting fees, has flown under the radar for the past ten years despite its success. And the company is looking to IPO in the next 18 months and will most probably soon announce a fairly big venture financing in the next few weeks (this will be the first large round of funding for the company).
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