Novus, a boutique telecommunications and networking distributed, is marketing Phybridge’s networking switch to small businesses looking to get into VoIP.

Novus believes that most networking hardware manufacturers focus on enterprise companies, offering features that are too complicated for most small businesses. The Phybridge (News - Alert) switch, on the other hand, only has eight ports but allows them to take advantage of some major VoIP features.

“The small business market has been lacking a product like this," said Chris Meehan (News - Alert), managing partner at Novus. "For most, the more ubiquitous 24-port and 48-port switches are excessive, providing much more capacity, cost and complexity than what is needed. This product enables you to deploy IP telephony for about 80 dollars per port and it does video streaming. You pop this in and have IP phones on your desk the same day. You don't have to worry about pulling cable."

The switch uses Power over Long Reach Ethernet (PoLRE), which means that it can receive power on the same cable that it receives data on. This makes installation simpler and also increases reliability of the network.

The switch also makes it easier for small businesses to move to VoIP phones by creating a separate LAN just for VoIP traffic.

“We see the LPC switch as the missing link for many hosted VoIP providers allowing them to create an end-to-end solution with the ideal LAN backbone supporting the IP phone requirement,” Phybridge CEO John Croce said at the launch of the switch. “The PoLRE 8 port switch eliminates many of the local area network barriers to VoIP migration allowing for a quick, easy and risk-free way to migrate to IP Telephony. The plug-and-play switch allows customers and hosted VoIP providers to create a completely separate LAN leveraging the existing, proven reliable voice infrastructure ensuring a great user experience.”

“There are tens of millions of small businesses in the US and they are frequently underserved with respect to technology tailored specifically to them. This is an exception," Meeham said.

As businesses grow, they can also opt for the higher-capacity switches that Phybridge makes. Novus also markets switches that support 24 and 48 ports.

Phybridge will also hold a webinar on October sponsored by TMCnet titled, “Game Changing Switch Innovation: Eliminating IP Telephony LAN Barriers!” Steven Fair, executive vice president of Phybridge and Tony Christopher, global director of telecommunications for Groupon, will speak at the webinar.