Cisco offers free 90-day Webex Licenses due to coronavirus outbreak

Pierluigi Paganini March 03, 2020

Cisco has decided to extend its business licenses for the free Webex account that will be available for 90-day due to Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak.

Cisco has announced an enhancement of its free Webex account offerings and is offering free 90-day business licenses to limit the spread of Coronavirus. WebEx is a popular web conferencing and videoconferencing application.

This is an important initiative that could help companies and individuals to better manage the critical situation caused by the Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak.

Governments are asking citizens to limit travels, major conferences and events have been postponed or delayed, businesses are promoting smart-working, and in this scenario the communications technologies like WebEx are essential.

The company noticed that the traffic on the Webex backbone connecting China-based Webex users to their global workplaces has increased as much as 22 times since the coronavirus outbreak began.

The IT giant has implemented additional features for the smart-working removing limitation in terms of participants and duration of WebEx web meetings.

Before the Coronavirus outbreak, free Cisco Webex account licenses allowed users to arrange meetings with up to 50 participants for a limited duration of 40 minutes.

According to the enhancements implemented by Cisco, free accounts can now host meetings with up to 100 participants and without limitation of time. Cisco also included in the offering dial-in numbers in addition to the ordinary VoIP.

“Effective immediately, we’ve expanded the capabilities on our free Webex offer in all countries where it is available, not only those impacted by COVID-19.” reads the announcement published by Cisco.

“Here are the additional features:

  • Unlimited usage (no time restrictions)
  • Supports up to 100 participants
  • Offers toll dial-in (in addition to existing VoIP capabilities”

Cisco decided to offer supplementary support during this “unprecedented time”, it is offering free 90-day licenses through partners and the Cisco sales team.

Cisco also revealed that during the coronavirus outbreak it saw 4 to 5 times as many users in Japan, South Korea and Singapore, with the average time spent on Webex video meetings doubling among users in those countries.

“On average, free sign-ups in impacted countries are up 7 times over pre-outbreak sign-up rates.” reported Cisco. “With the recent uptick in Italy and additional countries, Cisco continues to actively monitor global traffic trends and usage worldwide, and have a proactive plan to support our customers with their changing needs.”

The company announced it is proactively expanding its meeting capacity on a global scale, scaling up further in the United States and Europe. Cisco is also supporting non-governmental organizations to enable schools to go on with their activity.

“Additionally, through our partners and the Cisco sales team, we are providing free 90-day licenses to businesses who are not Webex customers in this time of need. We’re also helping existing customers meet their rapidly changing needs as they enable a much larger number of remote workers by expanding their usage at no additional cost.”

To take advantage of this offer, users can sign up for their free Webex account here.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Cisco, WebEx)

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