badnwidth logoCompanies looking to build voice and telephone applications now have a new choice for their infrastructure — the FlexNetwork, a just-opened, nationwide VoIP network offered by a company called Bandwidth.com. A number of startups that we’ve covered at VentureBeat are already using the new network, including Yext, which helps businesses get more calls from customers; phone automation platform Ifbyphone;  and Voxeo, which allows companies to automate their customer and employee communications through phone, text message, and more. OnState, which offers virtual call center products, is also an early customer. Bandwidth Chief Technology Officer T.R. Missner said the Cary, N.C. company wants to work with anyone bringing telephone applications to the web. “If you look at the landscape of the technology world, there’s a ton of web developers and not that many telecom guys,” Missner said. Naturally, Bandwidth wants to provide its VoIP expertise to those web developers. Missner and Vice President of Marketing Todd Barr told me FlexNetwork has a couple of big advantages over the established networks offered by companies like Level 3 Communications and XO Communications. FlexNetwork can work with smaller companies, they said, and it’s also able to offer unique features such as SMS text messaging. The network already has over 1 million phone numbers, and is on-track to deliver almost 4 billion minutes of voice this year, Bandwidth says. The company says it’s self-funded and profitable.

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