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Ring2 Extends Remote Control to Windows Mobile - press release

Posted: Monday, September 24, 2007

LONDON and SAN FRANCISCO – 24 September 2007 – Ring2 Conferencing, the world’s first audio-conferencing company to offer remote control of calls from a mobile device, announced today that it is extending its service to support Windows Mobile® devices.

Ring2 customers with Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices will now be able to use these handsets to take remote control of their conference calls. While they can still dial into the call from any phone, their mobile device now becomes a separate remote controller of the call leading to enhanced visibility, security and control.

“This service enhancement is a result of the strong market adoption of our remote control for BlackBerry® smartphones,” said Alex Breen, vice president of product management at Ring2. “The mobile remote control we offer is unique in the industry and gets straight to the heart of everyday problems that frustrate frequent conference callers.”

Using Ring2’s service, with a single click the call leader can join the conference from a phone of their choice and then:

  • See a real-time list of participants as they join or leave the call
  • Ensure nobody is listening in who shouldn't be
  • Add a missing participant from the mobile device address book
  • Mute the participant with distracting background noise
  • Record the call, downloadable as an MP3 file after the call

Audio-conferencing has become a $5 billion per annum everyday business activity, and Ring2 is focused on solving problems that have grown up with the industry. The company has ported its remote control capabilities onto mobile devices because so many conference calls are made away from the desk. Wainhouse Research has reported that 40 percent of conference calls are made from good old-fashioned meeting rooms. Ring2 is achieving 60 percent adoption rates of its mobile remote control tool compared with industry rates of less than 5 percent for PC-based control.

According to Gartner, Inc., shipments of Windows Mobile PDAs grew 64 percent in the first quarter of 2007, helping propel worldwide PDA shipments to 5.1 million units, a 39.7 percent increase from the first quarter of 2006. Additionally, Microsoft has recently predicted that 20 million Windows Mobile 6 devices will ship in 2008.