So what is WebRTC?
Imagine you had a real time communications engine built into every web browser that allowed any web site visitor to participate in real time audio and video communications without having to install some proprietary application that required flash, java or similar software installed in each client machine. That's the promise of WebRTC.
In the same way that the web and the browser transformed the way we do business WebRTC promises to do the same for telecom.
Who needs WebRTC?
WebRTC for Enterprise
In business we all know the advantages and benefits of communication and collaboration with our employees and our customers. WebRTC will allow the enterprise to embed real time communications much more easily into all of their interfaces, both customer-facing and employee-facing.
WebRTC for Service Providers
For Service Providers, both OTT and traditional carriers, WebRTC represents a new way to reach more of their subscribers to offers them enhanced service that will drive ARPU and increase customer satisfaction. If you are providing proprietary web-based communication services today you certainly need to be planning on how to leverage WebRTC to your benefit and how to defend against an abundance of potential new market entrants.
WebRTC for Websites
With WebRTC, any website can easily provide real time communication options for its visitors. WebRTC will allow social/community sites, services sites, consumer sites, your blog and your personal sites to add rich, real time communication options that are available for use by any visitor; Imagination is the only boundary.
WebRTC for Communications Vendors
With a real time communication engine in every browser WebRTC will fuel the development of a new generation of audio, video and messaging solutions that will extend unified communications to every browser. Existing and new communication vendors and software companies will need to build expertise in WebRTC to remain competitive and to offer new solutions.
So what's the Reality of WebRTC today?
WebRTC is in active development by many companies today, both building the infrastructure into browsers and creating communications applications that leverage the new browser capabilities. WebRTC is still in draft mode, and though it is currently supported by Google Chrome, Mozilla and Opera browsers, it is not fully compatible nor fully implemented, and it is still undergoing continual change.
Safari and Internet Explorer are not yet supporting the WebRTC standards, although plug-ins are available for both browsers. Microsoft is promoting its own variations of CU-RTC-WEB.
