Zello for Work (ZelloWork)

Zello for Work is the business application for voice communication via a secure channel of communication.

Representation of Zello for Work (2016)

On March 15, 2016 the Zello company announced upgrade of Zello for Work service.

Service is available to use in the territory of the Russian Federation and effectively works through 2G or EDGE. A system stores the history of negotiations on the server or client devices that helps to understand any disputable situation quickly.

It is no secret, that most of taxi drivers in Russia and neighboring countries already opened for themselves our service, regularly communicating by means of thousands of registered channels of the basic version Zello. However every day there are more and more taxicab companies and dispatching services connect the expanded version of Zello for Work intended not only for ensuring the fastest and effective interaction between drivers and managers, but also for control and permission of non-staff situations. Veronika Zaslavskaya, CEO of "Zello Russia"

Zello for Work allows to configure flexibly roles for different user groups. For example, managers will be able to control a talk of drivers, drivers – to hear only operators, without being distracted by communications of colleagues, and the head or the supervisor to monitor the events on air.

The Zello for Work service is available to transport companies of any size – from several machines to thousands of cars. The application effectively works even at the low level of a signal – at 3G or EDGE that in the Russian realities is important advantage. Zello for Work will allow to save the history of negotiations on the special server that helps to understand any disputable situation quickly.

The Zello for Work application already managed to win popularity among transport companies of the USA. In particular, the application is installed on cars and special equipment of waste-processing company Waste Management (more than 8 thousand vehicles), YRC Worldwide transport company (11 thousand connected points) and world famous transnational cargo carrier of TNT Express (department in 46 countries of the world).

2020: Free access to Zello Work for all services of rapid response and volunteer movements

On April 13, 2020 the Zello company, the international producer of professional voice solution as the radio set, provided Zello Work service free of charge for all services of rapid response and volunteer movements to help them to fight against COVID-19. Zello receives several applications per hour therefore the company mobilized personnel for fast satisfaction of the growing demand for the program.

The Zello Work application helps to communicate as in separate division, and to keep in instant contact between departments to accelerate interaction for rescue of people in the period of a coronavirus pandemic. Now the rapid response teams which are responsible for work in extraordinary with a situation can use a professional group voice communication which works on any cellular network (with low capacity, for example, 2G or EDGE) or on Wi-Fi or satellite communication.

The company made the decision to make the corporate voice service providing an uninterrupted voice communication between the staff of the organization, completely free for services of rapid response and volunteer movements of Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus etc.: stations of emergency medical service, fire divisions, police, rescue services, etc. The professional voice service Zello Work provides instant communication in channels to 10000 people at the same time.

In the conditions of a pandemic the staff of services of rapid response should communicate with more wide range of people, with representatives of other departments and often to resolve issues in group communication, being at the same time at distance from each other. Networks of traditional radio stations do not help to solve this problem.

The application was reused in emergencies (for example, during the periods of hurricanes in the USA). Many non-profit organizations giving first aid face budget restrictions which are not an obstacle for Zello Work use now. The Zello application for April, 2020 works at 22 languages of the world and hundreds of services of quick response from the different countries were connected to it. The application became the crucial tool in the period of crisis situations for coordination of efforts on the organization of rescue of people.

In those countries in which we observe as soon as COVID-19 is developed, we see that the systems of notifications and the system of quick response are overloaded. Telephone communication is not intended for group communication. Messengers are inconvenient for operational communication, a voice in the direct mode (as in the radio set) always quicker. The professional version of the program will be available to all state and public organizations participating in fight against world danger

2018

Blocking of the technical domain of Google

Ddostup to the Zello Internet radio set in the territory of Russia is closed. According to the Vedomosti edition with reference to one of founders of service Alexey Gavrilov, a year of attempt of Roskomnadzor to block Zello in the Russian Federation later were crowned with success, and now the Russian users can get access to it only through VPN.

On April 6, 2018 Roskomnadzor began blocking of the technical domain of Google - googleusercontent.com. As explained the regulator, the requirement of the State Office of Public Prosecutor in connection with access restriction to Zello formed the basis for blocking.

Requirement of Amazon

The Amazon company asked creators of the Zello Internet radio set blocked by Roskomnadzor in April, 2017 not to use the IP addresses of cloud services of Amazon for a bypass of this blocking. The founder of Zello Alexey Gavrilov in a conversation with representatives of Echo of Moscow radio station^[1] reported about it ^[2].

In total for a bypass of blocking of Zello uses 15 million IP addresses in 36 subnets. From them 13.5 million addresses from 26 subnets belong to Amazon. As the American company asked Zello not to use these resources for a blocking bypass any more, the Internet radio set was forced to migrate on other platform, Gavrilov reported. It does not exclude an opportunity, as the new company will make the same demand, as Amazon sooner or later.

Roskomnadzor suggested to block subnets of Amazon because of the Zello Internet radio set

Roskomnadzor submitted in the spring of 2018 to telecom operators recommendations about blocking of the voice Zello messenger. In particular, in several Telegram channels there were copies of the letter of Roskomnadzor containing the list from 36 subnets which are subject to blocking. The receipt of letters was confirmed by employees of four telecom operators in a conversation with journalists of the Vedomosti edition.

As it appears from the letter, blocking of Zello in Russia is an experiment, and for effective degradation of service it is also necessary to block a number of the subnets which are used the Internet radio set. In particular, telecom operators received the list from 36 subnets, 26 of which belong to Amazon. In total, subnets contain about 15 million IP addresses, from them 13.5 million belong to Amazon.

According to specialists though only a part of the addresses belongs to Amazon, the essential share in two large regions of the USA in which there are data centers of the company is the share of them. Blocking of subnets can break work of a set of the services which are not connected with Zello in any way.

2017

Blocking in Russia

Roskomnadzor sent in April, 2017 to the Russian telecom operators the requirement about blocking of the Zello application, they should execute it within a day, the representative of supervisory authority Vadim Ampelonsky told RBC. The reason — the owner of Zello Inc. service did not send to department data for inclusion in the register of the organizers of dissemination of information (ODI) in time^[3].

Zello is the free application for the devices working on operating systems Android BlackBerry and iOS which allows to transfer voice messages by analogy with the radio set. With its help one interlocutor can send messages or to create multi-user channels therefore it became popular among activists and long-distance truck drivers. As stated in the Zello group on social network "VKontakte", the application has 200 thousand open channels to which it is also possible to be connected, and service is set at 100 million users. In Russia at Zello more than 400 thousand active users, the company reported.

According to the law "About Communication" the mail services, messengers, forums and other services allowing Internet users to exchange electronic messages belong to ORI. Since July 1, 2018 ORI will have to store information on the facts of message exchange of the users within a year, and contents of these messages, an audio recording of calls, images, etc. — about half a year. ORI will have to provide this information upon the demand of law enforcement agencies. If on delivery and processing of electronic messages additional coding is used, the companies should provide information, necessary for decoding, in FSB.

Roskomnadzor at the beginning of March sent to Zello the requirement to provide the information for inclusion in the register of ORI, but the answer from the company did not follow. On March 15 department sent the renewed notification and gave the companies of 15 days on providing the necessary information. At the same time on the page on Facebook Zello published the letter received from Roskomnadzor. About whether the company is going to execute instructions of body, in record it was not told.

Again without having waited for the answer at the scheduled time, Roskomnadzor started blocking of Zello service for the Russian users. The representative of Roskomnadzor hoped that requirements of the law as a result will be run and blocking applications will be short. "Chtoby service was unlocked, Zello needs to perform requirements which the law imposes to ORI and to report about it to us" — he specified. The representative of Zello at the time of the publication did not respond RBC to the request.

According to Ampelonsky, lately the register of ORI included the Swiss Threema messenger and also file hosting services of Mediaget (Bahamas), depositfiles.com (Seychelles) and Letiitbit (Luxembourg).

Satellite GPS/GLONASS monitoring will allow to see location of users in the mobile ZelloWork radio set

In August, 2017 Zello company, the developer of the program for mobile devices allowing to turn smartphones and tablets in the radio set without reach restriction, announced release GPSGLONASS of module / control for the corporate version of ZelloWork. The solution allows to keep track of location of users, speed of their movement and level of battery power smartphone or the tablet on the online map.

The module of satellite observation was developed on numerous requests of corporate users which need to keep track of the actual location and the history of movements of the mobile employees on the card and to have an opportunity to contact instantly them by voice.

Function is useful to the companies in which staff there is a lot of traveling employees, for example, of drivers of trucks and the taxi, couriers, service engineers, supervisors, sales representatives, employees of technical support, etc. Thanks to a new solution of satellite control, the company management without additional investments can reduce costs on accomplishment of requests of clients and optimize time and resource expenditure due to operational problem solving. The remote worker in a difficult or disputable situation does not spend expensive working time on independent search of the solution of the arising problem any more, and immediately contacts the manager in the mode of the radio set (PTT). The manager sees location of the employee on the online map and, using all opportunities of the equipped workplace, - the stable Internet, additional contacts of the client, e-mail and messengers and also a possibility of consultation at specialists – lawyers, logisticians, accounting, a security service, solves the arisen situation and gives accurate instructions to the mobile employee.

For example, the driver could not find a necessary warehouse for loading, and the courier cannot contact the client. The driver reports up-to-date information to the manager and receives on the smartphone or the tablet (voice or in an alpha mode) the exact instruction how to reach a warehouse by an optimal way. He does not need to dial and wait on the line. The manager will warn the client at once that the car will approach on loading within several minutes, and the courier waits at the house.

If the driver was stopped and long traffic police officers hold, he reports about it to the manager, warning that it is delayed for the objective reasons. The employee instantly receives instructions how to work in the arisen situation. All talk registers and stored on mobile devices of the employee and in a workplace of the manager. In case of disputable situations the history of negotiations can form a basis for trial.

Using the module GPS/GLONASS of the monitoring embedded in the ZelloWork application it is possible:

• Find users of ZelloWork on the card by name;
• See all users who are in a certain region;
• Control their coordinates, time of the last shift of location, motion speed (km/h), battery power level;
• Contact users by voice;
• Browse the history of movements of users for the last 6 months;
• Pass into Google maps for viewing coordinates, traffic jams and making of a route.

In the current version the tracking on the card of users of Android and iOS is implemented.

Notes