Covad Intros Business VoIP

BY JOHANNE TORRES

TMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist

Voice and data services provider Covad Communications Group Inc. announced today it introduced the Covad VoIP PBXi Voice Service, the company’s VoIP service for its business clients. The company explained it designed the service to be comprised of a combination of existing on-premises phone equipment with new Internet telephony features.

The company says the service will enable businesses to use their existing on-premises telephone system while gaining cost advantages VoIP-based technologies provide. The system integrates into business phone systems because all the original handsets, phone numbers and equipment are retained.

"While a fully managed VoIP service may be ideal for many businesses, some business owners still want to retain their existing phone system and reduce their telecom operating expense by up to 25 percent," said Jeff Ahlquist, vice president, corporate development for Covad. "For those businesses, Covad VoIP PBXi Voice Service is an ideal fit. It allows them to retain their equipment investment, reduces monthly fees and positions them to easily adopt next-generation VoIP once they are ready."

The company is making the Covad VoIP PBXi Service available in four bundles designed for businesses with five to 100 employees per location. The Covad VoIP PBXi service can be integrated with PBX or key systems using a Primary Rate Interface (PRI) or analog interface. This feature enables the company to reach a larger number of businesses with the cost advantages of VoIP.

The four Covad PBXi Service bundles are:

Covad PBXi Analog I: Supports up to 8 analog ports/trunks on the PBX. This package includes 5,000 local and long distance minutes per month. Typical number of employees per site is 5–30.

Covad PBXi Analog II:Supports up to 16 analog ports/trunks on the PBX. This package includes 10,000 local and long distance minutes per month. Typical number of employees per site is 30–60.

Covad PBXi Digital I: Supports one T1 and one PRI interface on the PBX. Package includes 15,000 local and long distance minutes per month. Typical number of employees per site is 60–100.

Covad PBXi Digital II: Supports two incoming T1’s and one PRI interface on the PBX. Designed for businesses with high data bandwidth requirements. This seems like a good choice for locations that serve as a headquarters office supporting multiple branch offices/remote locations or that are planning to add more employees. Package includes 15,000 local and long distance minutes per month. Typical number of employees per site is 60–100.

"Installation and set-up of Covad PBXi Voice Service was simple, and there was no learning curve for my employees because we are using all the same phone equipment," said Ken Moss of Berkel Midwest, a Covad VoIP PBXi Voice Service customer. "Now that we have both voice and data traveling on a T1 line, we have experienced even more savings and fewer problems because we only have to work with one provider, Covad, for all our sites."

Set-up costs for Covad VoIP PBXi Voice Service begin at $300. All services are bundled with local and long distance minutes, a Cisco 2431 IAD and Covad Web hosting/email services. Each additional minute of usage is 2.5 cents.

You might remember that in January, the company began trials of the line-powered voice access that would enable its partners to offer local and long distance voice services to their customers in competition with the local telephone companies. The Line-powered voice access was made possible by Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) technology, which enabled fast deployment of new services and provided the foundation for services in a broadband network. The company worked with Nokia and Zhone Technologies, who provided the new DSLAMs and voice cards used in the project.

Covad Communications Group, Inc.
www.covad.com

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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit:

http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100006&nm=Johanne%20Torres

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