Ooma Lends Helping Hand to ISPs

You know what they say, there’s strength in numbers. This is especially true in competitive markets like business VoIP. Ooma seems to be taking that saying to heart because it’s launching yet another brand new partner program. The company launched its very first channel partner program about seven months ago, and now it’s expanding its network even further by creating another one, this time directed at Internet service providers (ISPs).

The Ooma ISP Partner Program will recruit local wireless ISP providers and provide them with voice services for their Internet subscribers, according to Gina Narcisi writing for CRN. Tim Sullivan, VP of Sales at Ooma, explained why this new partner program is so important by saying, “Now, regional ISPs can partner with [Ooma] for the voice component of their triple play, which is a really strong value-add that they need to compete with the big guns in the area, like Comcast and Spectrum.”

Ooma firmly believes in giving “the little guy” a fighting chance again bigger, better-known business VoIP competitors. So, those companies that take part in the partner program will be able to reap some major benefits, including: being able to sell Ooma’s business VoIP services to residential customers; gaining access to Ooma’s cloud-based phone system and voice services, consolidated billing and co-branded activation page; and online training to help customer service agents best meet the needs of customers.

On the same note as catering to smaller companies, Ooma not only wants to help smaller ISPs, but also wants to reach smaller businesses. Both The Ooma Office Partner Program and the ISP Partner Program allow provider partners to hone in on and connect with small business customers. In fact, ISPs who belong to their designated partner program can also join the Office Partner Program to expand their influence. By making it easy for these ISPs to join as many partner programs as possible, Ooma is working to ensure that they get a chance to reach as many people as possible, especially smaller businesses.

In the end, this ISP Partner Program is all about helping these companies stay competitive, without any hassle involved. According to Narcisi, “ISP partners will also be able to offer a competitive phone service, without obstacles like tax filings or becoming a registered Local Exchange Provider (LEC) with the Federal Communications Commission…These providers will sign up with Ooma almost in the same fashion that an agent partner would sign on to work with a carrier.”

Hopefully the Ooma ISP Partner Program proves to be successful, for both ISPs and those receiving their services.

Edited by Maurice Nagle