Gamma acquires Placetel from Cisco
With the takeover of Placatel, the British communications provider Gamma is further expanding its presence in Germany. The question is: What's next for FlexPBX?
(Image: Gamma Communications)
- Benjamin Pfister
The British cloud communications provider Gamma Communications plc is acquiring Placetel from Cisco, which previously traded as BroadSoft Germany GmbH. At the same time, Gamma secures access to the Webex suite with its new AI tools through a cooperation with Cisco.
Following the acquisition of gnTel in 2020, Gamma is now further expanding its presence in Germany with the takeover of Cisco subsidiary Placetel. The acquisition was announced back in August 2024, but has only now been completed. At the same time, the company says it wants to deepen its partnership with Cisco: the cooperation will enable access to the Webex suite. However, the question for customers and partners is what the future holds for Gamma's FlexPBX cloud PBX platform. Gamma has not yet provided any details on this.
The Webex Suite with its AI functions should certainly be a significant step forward for Gamma. In recent tests, the new AI codec proved to be extremely robust against poor network conditions. iX was still able to achieve good voice quality in the lab with over 40 percent packet loss and 200ms unidirectional network delay. According to Cisco, this is due to the underlying vector quantization. Previously, with classic audio codecs in telephony, 3 percent packet loss and a maximum delay of 150ms from mouth-to-ear were considered the quality reference.
(olb)
