In 2010, Pinger, a leading free texting provider, wanted to add voice services to their market-leading text free SMS application. They aimed to offer each of their users their own phone number. However, being more of a software company than a traditional telecom player, Pinger needed a network partner that was flexible, agile, experienced, and creative enough to help them bring voice to life in their Textfree app. The challenge was that Pinger was new to VoIP and had no volume yet. They needed a partner willing to work with them so they could launch and scale their innovative app. Traditional larger incumbents were difficult to negotiate with due to Pinger's lack of existing voice minute volumes.

GigSalad is an online talent marketplace that connects talent with event hosts nationwide. The platform was facing challenges with its messaging system, which is a crucial part of its service. Prior to becoming a Bandwidth customer, GigSalad was using a telco-based email gateway for sending messages between its members. However, when they needed to scale up in response to demand for the service, message deliverability rates with their previous provider dropped significantly. This was a major issue as GigSalad customers relied heavily on its messaging features to initiate booking.

Red Oxygen, a company that has been helping businesses connect with their customers via SMS for nearly 20 years, identified a significant challenge in the business communication landscape. The company recognized that while businesses of all sizes and industries strive to connect with their customers, the traditional methods of communication were becoming less effective. Emails, for instance, could go hours or even days without being read. On the other hand, 90% of text messages are read within the first 3 minutes, making SMS a more reliable and immediate form of communication. However, the challenge lay in implementing SMS into existing applications or software, which typically requires significant developer time and resources. This was a major barrier, especially for smaller companies that lacked in-house resources, and larger companies that couldn't spare their developers from other projects.

Reaching voters is a daunting task. Whether you’re a candidate asking for their vote, polling potential voters, or just making them aware of the issues, reaching out to the electorate in a way that’s effective while still connecting with them on a personal level can be extremely challenging. RumbleUp understood that challenge, and launched their platform to make political outreach scalable while still maintaining the personal connections that are so crucial to winning over new supporters, donors and voters. Finding a partner that can provide the throughput that’s needed while helping to maintain the personal touch is a tall order, but RumbleUp delivers on that every day, which is why their customers keep coming back to them, campaign after campaign.

BoomTown, a CRM platform for the real estate industry, was facing a challenge where a significant portion of communication between realtors and leads was happening outside of the CRM, specifically through text messages on personal cell phones. This presented two major business challenges. First, there was limited tracking capability. Unless a text interaction was manually logged into the CRM, there was no official record of it happening. This meant limited sharing of historical data among team members and the inability to accurately measure an agent’s response time and overall performance. Second, there was a limited ability to share best practices. BoomTown prides itself on delivering up-to-the-hour best practices data and advice to the real estate industry. With a large chunk of data missing from user reports, analyzing response rates for best practice indicators was a challenge.

Patronus was founded in 2013 with the aim of modernizing the way students access emergency help on college campuses. The company believed that the existing standards, which included blue call boxes and running to the nearest landline phone, were outdated considering the ubiquity of mobile phones. After a year of product development and user testing, Patronus was in search of a voice and messaging API partner that could help it evolve with future versions of the application. The company wanted a platform provider that would help tackle challenges as they arose and could scale for what was poised to be a significant growth story.

Phone.com, a cloud-based phone system provider, was facing challenges with its primary communications platform as a service (CPaaS) partner. The partner was lacking in providing quick and easy access to phone numbers in area codes nationwide, a simple process for provisioning numbers and features through easy-to-use tools, and pricing that delivers economies of scale rather than acting as a penalty for growth. The biggest complaints were in the areas of cost and customer service.

McLeod Software’s LoadMaster is a leading software solution for asset-based trucking companies. It is used by over 600 companies in North America, with over 28,000 professionals using it daily. However, McLeod’s customers needed an easy way to communicate with their drivers, many of whom do not own smartphones. The drivers were already communicating via text messaging, but the messages were not being captured within the software platform. To integrate these text conversations within the platform, McLeod required a simple set of APIs and SDKs that would automate everything. Since McLeod’s customers install the LoadMaster software on-premise within their organizations, the company also needed a solution that would work within each of its customers’ environments, without fail.

VOIPo, a provider of fully featured phone service to cord cutters and small businesses, was facing challenges in scaling up to accommodate big customer orders and getting real-time insight on phone number ports. The process of manual phone number ports was cumbersome and required a series of authorization forms for each number. Support agents had to be in frequent contact with the customer to process an order. When number ports failed, it posed an even bigger challenge for a small support staff. VOIPo needed more features than the basic APIs other companies were offering to manage phone numbers.

TDS Telecom, the seventh largest local exchange telephone company in the U.S, was facing a challenge of expanding its services beyond its traditional coverage area due to growing demand. The company had a diverse base of business and consumer customers and was looking to grow its market through acquisitions, primarily of cable companies. However, to extend its bundled consumer services and business offerings beyond its existing local exchange carrier (CLEC) footprint, TDS required a network partner with nationwide coverage. This partner would not only need to provide network availability, but also 911 service and automation tools that would make the expansion process seamless.

Truly Wireless, a fast-growing enterprise phone system app, was facing a challenge with its then-current communications API provider. The provider was not able to deliver the network quality and reliability needed to serve Truly Wireless's growing customer base. For an enterprise-grade phone system to obtain new users, it must deliver a nearly flawless degree of call reliability and quality. However, during its testing process with a prospective customer, Truly found that it was not able to obtain a high percentage of connected calls with major wireless carriers using its legacy providers.

ProviderTech, a rapidly growing startup, recognized a gap in patient engagement as health care delivery systems increased in size. The ability to communicate effectively with patients suffered. However, the rapid expansion and adoption of mobile technology created a unique opportunity to connect people with health care providers. ProviderTech developed a system that automatically creates and sends customized messages to patients to address individual health conditions. As its client base continued to grow, the team realized it needed a more robust and sustainable back-end platform to power the core SMS communications. ProviderTech needed the ability to provision numbers instantly paired with sufficient flexibility with its telecommunications partners to service its clients and meet business requirements.

Purple, a company providing communication services for the deaf or hard of hearing, was faced with a challenge when the FCC issued a mandate for telephone relay services (TRS). This mandate required the use of a text telephone (TTY) or an Internet-connected PC to enable communication between hearing and non-hearing individuals over a telephone. Purple needed a partner to help them meet this FCC mandate. They required a service provider with a robust offering and the widest possible footprint. After an extensive review of the companies in the industry, Purple selected Bandwidth.

ParentSquare, a web-based platform for school-to-home communication, faced a challenge in ensuring the delivery of important messages to every parent. The company's clients, school districts nationwide, were struggling to reach parents and guardians who were less tech-savvy or not mobile-connected. These individuals often missed communications because they were not read in time or completely overlooked. ParentSquare needed a partner that could help it quickly and easily integrate voice notifications into its offering and help school districts increase their capacity for communicating with every parent, at any time of day. Another requirement was that the school districts could send out voice notifications from the school’s active and established phone numbers.

QWASI’s AIM User Interface is a cloud-based platform that provides enterprises with one view of all customer engagement. However, the company was looking for a partner that would help it enable voice and IVR features through the AIM platform. Adding voice to the omnichannel platform would mean that QWASI’s clients’ customers would be able to receive phone call notifications and customize an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) experience for collecting input from those phone calls. Speed to market is paramount to everything about QWASI’s business model and platform, and implementing voice and IVR would be no different. As a growing startup with deep expertise in software development and integration, QWASI needed a partner that could do the heavy lifting of telecom.

WhatConverts, a call lead tracking company, was previously using another CPaaS (communications platform as a service) provider before switching to Bandwidth in 2015. The company was seeking a cost-effective solution that could provide a robust API for issuing customer phone numbers in their local area codes. The API needed to be dynamic enough to work with their existing software and simple enough to issue new phone numbers without confusion. Customers desired local area codes to match their places of business, enhancing their local presence.

HTC, Inc., the nation’s largest telecommunications cooperative, was faced with a challenge when it partnered with Lumbee River Electric Membership Corporation (LREMC) to deliver voice services over a new fiber network in North Carolina. The problem was that HTC didn’t have a voice coverage footprint in the areas where the new fiber network had been built. To deliver on LREMC’s requirements, HTC was faced with the classic conundrum in telecommunications deployment—to build or to buy. HTC could have paid thousands of dollars and dedicated its workforce to securing licenses and facilities in the new markets, which would have taken a year or more. Alternatively, the company could partner with a CLEC provider and pay significantly less to deploy voice services across the new network.

Fusion, a company that provides hosted phone systems to corporate, government, and military customers, was in need of a partner to deliver FCC-compliant E9-1-1 for VoIP. They were dissatisfied with other alternatives and required a provider that was interested in and capable of supporting 9-1-1 for their unique customer base. The challenge was to find a solution that was FCC compliant for Basic, Enhanced, and Next Generation 9-1-1 functionality and could accommodate Fusion's provisioning cycles.