Ribbit, which makes application platforms for telephony systems, this week brought its technology out of beta mode.

The startup-turned-British Telecom subsidiary has a 7,500-member developer community, officials said.  “Developers today can use the Ribbit platform to do everything that's required to bring a new communication service to market -- designing, testing, provisioning, deploying, pricing, billing and monitoring the application, performing each of these functions in a user-friendly, Web-based, on-demand environment” – a notion Ribbit refers to as programmable telephony.

It’s not just a good Monty Python joke.  British Telecom paid $105 million for the company this summer to encourage more applications such as integrating mobile calls into Web pages, social networking and visual voicemail.

Ribbit also announced a $100,000 “killer” application contest.  Categories are business and productivity; carrier, network and ISP integration; media, advertising and entertainment; social networking and communication; and an “other” grouping.