Signate, an Asterisk provider, bites the dust?

December 8, 2006
Signate is a provider of Asterisk-based solutions that apparently is going through major problems. I've been getting lots of emails asking if I know what is going on with them, so I did some research. Word through the grapevine is that they are about to go belly-up - but this is still unconfirmed. Their former CEO left and when I tried to reach their new CEO Paul Mahler and I got an automated voice message telling me to email Paul@paulmahler.com. It also mentioned that if I left a voicemail he would never get it. His work email also bounces back so I am guessing he is no longer with the company.

I then tried to reach an operator and was immediately put into voicemail. I talked with Joe Fabiano, one of our sales reps, and Joe emailed my pal Garrett Smith (SmithonVoIP) since Garrett's VoIPSupply.com company is a distributor of Signate. If anyone would know, a distributor would. Well, Garrett did some research of his sources and he told Joe, "According to my sources they are toast."

Is this a case of the Asterisk ecosystem growing too fast, with too many players trying to get into the Asterisk game? With free Asterisk offerings such as AsteriskNOW, trixbox, and inexpensive solutions from Fonality, Digium, and other providers - some hosted - some CPE, it will be interesting to see who survives and who doesn't. Considering Asterisk is an open-source solution, adding enough value and margin to Asterisk is a tricky business to remain profitable, especially when you consider that open-source advocates tend be very thrifty (cheap?) when it comes to paying for software.

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Comments to Signate, an Asterisk provider, bites the dust?


  1. Aaron Hathaway :
    December 13, 2006 4:07 PM

    According to a former employee:

    Signate filed chapter 7 in early November. The intellectual property was sold to ipgear.net last week.


  1. Fabricio :
    February 11, 2007 1:21 AM

    Have you tried Elastix (www.elastix.org)?. It's a PBX software appliance that includes asterisk and a Jabber Server (Wildfire).


  1. Michael White :
    October 8, 2007 10:22 PM

    More bad news... This has been a crazy month.

    Michael White
    .e4
    http://www.8774e4voip.com


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