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www.voip-news.comBy Robert Poe
A lot of SMBs (small- to medium-sized businesses) might not be ready for VoIP. However fervently they want it, these companies might for various reasons decide that the time is not right. For example, if these businesses have bought a non-IP telephone system in the past two or three years, they can't afford to replace it so soon. Even the cost savings of VoIP may not outweigh the need to depreciate equipment that has a typical life cycle of seven or so years. Fortunately, a new service by 8x8 Inc. aims to at least partly alleviate such dilemmas.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company calls its service Packet8 Virtual Trunking. It delivers voice traffic over an IP trunk from 8x8's backbone network to an IAD (Integrated Access Device) on the customer's premises. The trunk runs over whatever broadband connection the company is already using. The IAD translates traffic between the IP trunk and any telephone equipment that the company already has on premises.
VoIP Benefits Sans Equipment
The service lets SMBs gain at least the cost savings, if not the features, of VoIP while keeping their existing equipment. 8x8 takes care of porting the company's existing numbers to its network. That process no longer takes four to six weeks the way it used to. According to 8x8's vice president of sales and marketing Huw Rees, automation of the process has cut that time to five or six days.
The company also professionally installs the equipment and will perform a site survey to ensure that there's enough bandwidth to support voice traffic. According to Rees, a business's existing setup is sufficient in most cases, but occasionally, 8x8 will recommend a bandwidth boost. The service compresses the voice traffic, so an active phone call requires only 25 Kbps of bandwidth. Also, 8x8 has found that the quality of the local broadband connection is usually sufficient to support voice. Any potential quality problems are most likely in the local network, Rees added.
Packet8 Virtual Trunking can be a lot cheaper than traditional telephone service. The start-up cost, which includes the IAD and installation, is $1,500. But 8x8 offers a $500 discount of for a one-year contract and a $1,000 break for a two-year term. Service costs a mere $25 per month, per line, including 500 minutes of calling to North America. After that, calls cost 3.5 cents per minute.
The company has made its name as the leading provider of hosted VoIP services for small businesses. More recently, 8x8 began offering mobile access to its international VoIP network to allow cellular users to avoid paying exorbitant rates for overseas calls. Packet8 Virtual Trunking is yet another way that 8x8 will make use of the backbone network it created to support its original VoIP offering.
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