MetTel has entered a strategic partnership with Telestax, a Restcomm technology company, to deploy a communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) environment for use with the MetTel global network.

The new environment will allow developers and clients in MetTel Customer Innovation Labs to create communications applications and services that use real-time embedded voice, video and messaging to help companies engage customers seeking instant interaction, the company said. The MetTel labs span three facilities in New York City, the former Bell Labs site in Holmdel, New Jersey, and in Salt Lake City.

“MetTel prides itself on quickly delivering solutions to customers’ communication problems,” said Ed Fox, vice president of network services and chief of MetTel Labs. “In this case we’ve added the most open, extensible technology platform to give our lab teams more versatility in recommending and writing new real-time apps on the fly. Our teams collaborate with customers to solve their everyday challenges and help them quickly capitalize on emerging opportunities for productivity, efficiency, innovation and engagement.”

The Web real-time communications (WebRTC) market is estimated to grow to $4.5 billion by 2020, according to MarketsandMarkets.

The resulting cloud-based services and applications will join MetTel’s product portfolio under the MetTel Hosted and MetTel Connect product lines. The company’s portfolio also includes MetTel Analytics, MetTel Consult, MetTel HelpDesk and MetTel Mobility.

MetTel customers also will be able to leverage the intellectual capital provided by an open source community of more than 10,000 independent Restcomm developers, including many from global innovation leaders.