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September 16, 2025

The Next Big Thing in UCaaS, Instead of the cellular providers building UCaaS solutions, a better approach is for UCaaS providers to partner and integrate with cellular services


Anyone remotely involved in the UCaaS industry has been asked, “Why do businesses still buy phone systems? All I need is my smartphone.”

While we are all very excited about all the new smartphones, there is still need and value to a business communications system. The reasons are many, but top motivations include shared phones, contact centers, and the need for advanced routing and services. Cellular services continue to improve, but focus more on personal use cases.

For years, I assumed cellular devices and services would eventually threaten enterprise UC and UCaaS solutions. Some have. Services such as Verizon OneTalk combine UCaaS and Cellular into a single offer that provides a single provider solution that includes one dial plan with numbers that can be assigned across wired and wireless devices. Most importantly, these cellular-provisioned business services give their users a higher class of wireless service compared to the lowest tier most UCaaS users experience with over-the-top mobile apps.

Yet, these cellular services remain niche products, dwarfed by major UCaaS offers from global providers. The cellular providers are not well-suited to sell and support the complexities of enterprise communications. Though simplified over the years, the reality is that enterprise communications, and its dial plans, routing, reporting, recording, queing, equipment, and more, are still customizable and complex enough that specialized solutions and skills are required.

That said, the single-provider solution is inevitable. Instead of the cellular providers building UCaaS solutions, a better approach is for UCaaS providers to partner and integrate with cellular services. This phenomenon is what I call UCaaS Mobility 3.0 (UCM3) as it’s the industry’s third evolution of mobility.

The first model is most easily described as creative call-forwarding. One of the popular features of this was called “Find-Me Follow-Me. The second generation, popular still today, is the UCaaS smartphone app that uses over-the-top wireless connectivity, and the third generation is to integrate UCaaS and Cellular so UCaaS numbers are native on a cellular SIM, making these numbers and services first-class citizens on any cell phone.

The first major UCaaS provider to offer this was Cisco with Webex Go. Soon after, Microsoft enabled it on Teams. Both of these providers support UCM3 through provider-branded offerings as well as an MVNO approach model, which has the added benefits of global coverage and availability through traditional resellers. The number of UCM3 offers has steadily increased. RingCentral has enabled it with AT&T and Vodafone, Enreach offers it in Europe, Phone.com offers it too.

Most recently, Crexendo announced Crexendo Extend, which enables more than 200 of its service providers to add SIM-based cellular services to their branded UCaaS solutions. Crexendo Extend, powered by Tango Networks, is available today in 39 countries, and can even be procured as a regular UCaaS seat or even for short-term uses with daily passes. The Crexendo implementation integrates both cellular voice and messaging into the Netsapiens service.

The value proposition of these combined offers is significant: Single provider for multiple services, sometimes even across countries. Numbers can be moved across desk phones, softphones, and smartphones. Mobile users will enjoy a high-class of service, and dual-SIM phones simplify sharing a personal device with business use cases.

UCM3 can greatly enhance a UCaaS solution. Administrators can leverage a single portal to manage and configure employees across meetings, messaging, and wired and wireless calling. Business calls can be centrally logged. Users can use the native dialer on their cell phones without apps. By converging mobility and UCaaS, organizations can once again implement a rational enterprise-wide communications plan.

Mobile devices can be company-owned or personal. An employee’s personal calls go in/out of one SIM, and work calls go in/out the other. Only the work calls are logged in the UCaaS system. At the end of the day, the user can change their work status to unavailable to send business calls to voicemail.

I have expected significant interest of UCM3, but adoption has been slow. This is largely attributed to a lack of understanding and locked phones (a US phenomenon). Nonetheless, interest, awareness, and availability has been steadily increasing. It’s one of those things that doesn’t become obvious until you try it. Organizations that adopt it will have a more effective and versatile solution for enterprise communications and collaboration.

Dave Michels is a contributing editor and analyst at TalkingPointz.
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