March 11, 2005

VOIP - Smaller Businesses Are Being Hunted

VOIP (Voice Over The Internet) is hot, hot, hot. Vonage is getting a lot of marketing attention but many other providers are gaining traction, especially for SMBs.

NY based M5 Networks a seller of "managed telephony services" writes Hosting your phone system at the M5 Datacenter eliminates a company's need to purchase a PBX and frees it from the costly burden of managing numerous voice and data services. M5 buys telecom services in bulk to ensure customers always receive reliable, carrier-class service at low rates. M5 services hundreds of businesses, providing extraordinary responsiveness, accountability and powerful features for considerable capital savings.

Cnet writes Besides expenses, businesses are put off by VoIP's uncertain regulatory future, possibly made worse recently when Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, a proponent of keeping VoIP calls unregulated, said he was stepping down. Businesses are also hesitant to dump old telephone systems, in which they've invested millions of dollars.

To capture new businesses, some providers are playing "host," which is less financially stressful. Hosting is a service model in which a company--say, SBC--provides the service using its expertise and infrastructure. This way, businesses aren't forced to make big capital investments.

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