Business Internet and Hosted VoIP Offerings Expand in Arizona

In an effort to expand its reach among business owners, CenturyLink announced that the company plans to offer fiber-optic Internet and VoIP services in Arizona.

The company’s market strategy includes attracting new customers by offering competitive rates for businesses looking to take the plunge into VoIP. CenturyLink plans to offer rates starting at $85 per month, which reportedly includes at least 10 MB of enterprise grade symmetrical fiber-optic data with a service level agreement.

VoIP is a growing market, particularly among businesses looking to reduce costs. The global business and residential VoIP services market grew 8 percent from 2012 to 2013, reaching $68 billion, according to Infonetics Research.

"Business VoIP services have moved well beyond early stages to mainstream, strengthened by the growing adoption of SIP trunking and cloud services worldwide,” said Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research.

Businesses are attracted to VoIP because of the cost savings associated with the infrastructure and equipment. Instead of being processed across conventional commercial telecommunications lines, voice calls use the Internet or private data network lines.

As such, long-distance phone calls are significantly less expensive with VoIP. Typically VoIP providers also offer no upfront installation costs and no capital expense for the equipment. Additionally, maintenance costs are reduced, providing even more savings. Businesses of all sizes are taking note.

“Hosted unified communications are seeing strong interest upmarket as mid-market and larger enterprises evaluate and move more applications to the cloud, and this is positively impacting the market,” Myers continued.

According to CenturyLink, its solutions can be customized to each company’s individual operational environment. A dedicated managed-office team provides the design, delivery and maintenance of the technical infrastructure.

CenturyLink is the third largest U.S. telecommunications company in terms of telephone subscribers, trailing only AT&T and Verizon. The company’s services include high-speed DSL Internet access, VoIP, landline phone service, home security systems and, via a partnership with DIRECTV, satellite television.