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www.voip-news.comBy Robert Poe
SMBs (small- to medium-sized businesses) have a lot of decisions to make when it comes to phone systems. Choosing between TDM (time-division multiplexing) or IP is actually one of the easier ones, since by now IP clearly has most of the advantages. Deciding to go hosted or premise-based is only a bit harder. Small companies may find hosted solutions a good idea, but graduating to premises equipment is considerably more practical as they grow.
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The question of which equipment vendor to choose gets the most attention these days, along with accompanying specifics, such as whether to choose open-source, standards-based or proprietary solutions. But one puzzle that gets less notice can sometimes be the trickiest: which service provider to choose, particularly for nonhosted systems. A new service from MegaPath Inc. aims to make that choice a bit less complicated.
MegaPath has been offering Internet and other data services for more than 10 years. Following an acquisition last year, the company began offering hosted VoIP as well. The VoIP service, called Duet, comes as part of a voice and data package that runs over MegaPath lines to the customer's home or office. Until now, Duet has provided voice connectivity for analog phones and key systems — just the kind of pre-IP systems that many small companies still use. The service prioritizes voice over other data traffic on the shared link, so phone calls never suffer the kind of degradation that can result when VoIP service travels over public Internet lines.
Because small companies are the best prospects for upgrading to IP PBXes, MegaPath is introducing Duet at the Spring 2008 VON.x Conference and Expo in San Jose, Calif. The new service provides PRI (primary rate interface) and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunks that will deliver voice traffic directly to traditional and IP PBXes over lines provided by MegaPath. The cost of two lines over SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line) links starts at $99 per month, including unlimited calling in North America. SDSL works for up to six lines, according to MegaPath product marketing vice president Greg Davis. Two lines over T1 (1.5 Mbps) links start at $399. T1 connections can support up to 24 lines, Davis said.
Of course, the suitability of the different links will vary according to the volume of data traffic sharing the lines. Even small companies regularly sending and receiving huge CAD (computer-aided design) /CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) files may want to go with a T1 rather than a SDSL link. So might a company that is hosting services on its own in-house servers, Davis noted. Either way, the new service relieves small companies' worry of whether they will have to change service provides when switching to VoIP.
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