When asked what I love about Webex Calling, I get most excited about the innovation we have delivered in the last year. It is exciting to think about how we are bringing a next-gen calling experience to the modern workforce. The rise of hybrid work added an even greater sense of urgency into our efforts to reimagine the calling experience, to move beyond hearing, to seeing and doing. Webex delivers.
With hybrid work here to stay, we are connecting 6 million Webex Calling users around the world and that number continues to grow. We provide a high-quality cloud calling experience, with built-in security, and artificial intelligence to power an inclusive work experience from anywhere.
Over the last two years—most of us have not had a desk phone for work. Our mobile devices have become increasingly important as part of the modern work experience. In our evolving work-life integration culture, smart phones have become the glue for our daily routines. For me personally, I use my mobile device for everything from paying bills to reviewing presentations for my next meeting. With the increased importance of mobile devices in both our work and personal routines—our team saw an opportunity to bring together the personal mobile phone with the business phone system and to create a simplified experience.
Back in October, our team announced Webex Go, a mobile-first capability with Webex. Today, we are excited to share that Webex Go will become generally available in the U.S. later this month. With this new service, you can extend a Webex Calling business line natively to your personal mobile phone. What that means is you can make and receive business calls using your Webex Calling phone number, over the cellular voice network, using your mobile phone’s native dialer. No app is required because you are using the native dialer on your iPhone.
Webex Go ensures calls are secure and compliant with enterprise policies, such as compliance call recording. Because you’re using the cellular voice network, instead of the data network, your call quality will always be the best possible. You will have peace of mind, knowing every call to your colleagues presents your business number, keeping your personal information private.
Webex Go is an excellent solution for hybrid work, and it is super easy to use. It empowers users to take advantage of all the business-grade calling capabilities provided by Webex Calling. Webex Go is great for administrators as they can easily provision and manage Webex Go in Control Hub. Webex Go is an add-on to Webex Calling, and you can connect with your Cisco partner/account manager to learn more or to set up a trial. You can visit Sonu Arora’s blog here or the Webex Go website.
While we enhance the mobile device experience—we continue to transform the calling experience with more artificial intelligence (AI). A good example of this would be the optimize for my voice feature in calls. With this capability, you can select “optimize for my voice ” in the Webex App, the audio will focus on speech close to the microphone and remove all background speech. This is super powerful when you’re in a hybrid work environment because you can take a business phone call from anywhere and have the confidence that your voice will be heard clearly—even if you’re working in a shared open workspace.
Another feature for hybrid work is voicemail transcription. This smart capability helps you stay on top of those important phone calls while keeping you productive in your day. For example, if I’m in a meeting and cannot step out to take or listen to that important phone call—voicemail transcription will automatically transcribe the message so I can glance at it and just read the voicemail. This helps me stay focused on the task at hand and keeps business moving forward throughout the day. Voicemail transcription is just one of many ways we are using AI to enhance the calling experience.
As we build more intelligence into Webex Calling, we are creating seamless work experiences. With the power of Webex Calling and Cisco Devices, you can support employees working from multiple locations while delivering features that provide users and administrators with a more intuitive and consistent experience across all Webex devices and applications.
For example, the Cisco IP Phone 8800 Multiplatform Phone is an excellent choice for employees working in the office or from home. These MPP phones are now enabled with noise removal, eliminating distracting background noise, and providing users with the same, high-quality calling experience they get from the Webex App and Cisco Devices. Learn more.
Additionally, the Webex Room and Webex Desk video devices are now able to natively register with Webex Calling. This means that users have access to enterprise calling features, such as hold, resume, transfer, conference, and voicemail access, in addition to extension and PSTN dialing.
We are enabling additional Webex Cloud Services to deliver an enhanced consistency of experience across all the Cisco Devices and the Webex App. This includes the delivery of Unified Call History and an enhanced directory search experience which will include the integration of enterprise users and additional organization contacts, such as external partners or companies. And regardless of the Webex App or Device users are interacting with they will experience the same results.
As we bring more value to our customers with innovative business calling, we want to ensure we can deliver this experience to as many people as possible around the world. That’s why I’m excited to share that we have expanded the regional availability of Webex Calling and our Cisco Calling Plans.
Currently, we offer Webex Calling in 85 countries and with Cloud Connected PSTN providers in 65 countries. This month, we are excited to announce that multinational corporations can now easily deploy Webex Calling to their branch offices located in India. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) requires specific routing of calls to prevent toll bypass. Customers will be able to easily implement location-based policies to prohibit mixing of calls across VoIP & India PSTN networks, and by routing long distance and international PSTN calls through a local PSTN connection.
We are also expanding coverage of Cisco Calling Plans by adding five new countries in Europe, which include Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland. We’re excited to announce the expansion of Cisco Calling Plans in the Asia/Pacific region, starting with Australia and New Zealand coming soon. Cisco Calling Plans offer a bundled solution to simplify the cloud calling experience. As a Webex Calling customer, you can order new PSTN numbers, or port existing numbers to Cisco easily and with the full support of Cisco and our partners. View our country availability here.
To learn more about how we’re expanding coverage and creating an experience for everyone to enjoy – visit Amey Parandekar’s blog here.
As you can see, our team is busy reimagining the calling experience so we can connect everyone and everywhere – whether it’s from the office, from home, or anywhere in between. If you are looking for a modern cloud calling solution, built for hybrid work, I invite you to explore Webex Calling.
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