Saw this article…the main thing to take away from this is that if you are chosing VoIP, remember that your bandwidth connection and service level quality of service is key. Companies like Comcast & AT&T’s DSL products do not offer the reliability you need. NuVox offers dedicated T1 circuits for your business…Because business is on the line! Call Me today for a free quote on a T1 service!
As new technologies floods the market, businesses across the country are turning to Voice over Internet Protocol to expand telecommunication networks.
But with every new product introduction, glitches are commonplace, and business owners have to be aware of some of the technology’s shortcomings.
“VoIP does not have the universal quality of a traditional phone line,” said Tim Searcy, chief executive of the American TeleServices Association. “And you are moving to a heavily software based solution, which means more programmers are involved.”
Quick Tips
Research local and national VoIP providers
Know available bandwidth
Audit utilization and network statistics
Review infrastructure elements
The Indianapolis organization represents the $500 billion call center industry and advocates members’ interests on Capitol Hill and in statehouses nationwide, providing professional education opportunities and acting as the sector’s information clearinghouse.
Raymond Shaw, president of the Association of TeleServices International, said companies need to be cognizant of bandwidth availability.
If there isn’t a dedicated connection between a business and its VoIP provider, he said transmission delays can occur, causing bad reception or jumbled communication.
VoIP services convert voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet. If a user is calling a regular phone number, the signal is converted to a regular telephone signal before it reaches its destination. VoIP can allow a user to make a call directly from a computer, a special VoIP phone, or a traditional phone connected to a special adapter. In addition, wireless “hot spots” in locations such as airports, parks and cafes allow users to connect to the Internet and may enable VoIP services wirelessly.
Despite some technical glitches, VoIP subscriptions have skyrocketed in the last year. According to the Washington, D.C. research firm TeleGeography, Internet-based telephone services grew 21 percent in the second quarter to 6.9 million users. Overall, the VoIP market saw a 153 percent increase in subscriptions compared to mid-2005, while industry revenues for the second quarter increased 173 percent to $607 million compared to the $221 million in sales a year ago.
“VoIP is rapidly spreading among multiple enterprise solutions which have multiple locations around the country and the world,” said Matthew D’Uva, president of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business. The Alexandria, Va.-based organization is dedicated to improving and advancing the marketplace for consumers within the corporate structure. SOCAP members include consumer affairs and customer care professionals from more than 1500 different companies — many of which are listed in Fortune/Forbes 1000.
“Our members are looking for ways to improve and enhance communication with their customers from all angles, and VoIP is one channel to do that,” D’Uva said.
While installation and service fees vary by state and provider, VoIP services typically costs less than traditional phone services.
VoIP systems can cost anywhere from no charge up to $200 per month but will generally cost $10 to $50 per month depending on the type of services ordered. VoIP can be free when the service routes a from PC to PC, but the price increases based on the number of local and long distance calls made and the features a company implements.
Today, most business VoIP services can provide a firm with a variety of features, ranging from $20 to $200. Business VoIP provider commonly include a T-1 Internet connection and a guarantee for quality of service which increases the costs.
According to the latest research on ConsumerCompare.org, Virginia-based SunRocket Inc. was given the highest rating of six stars. To get the $16.58 monthly rate for unlimited minutes, businesses must prepay for the entire year, which is $199, but can cancel any time and get a refund for unused months. Since SunRocket includes all taxes and surcharges, a firm makes the $199 payment up front and then is able to make unlimited local and long distance calls for the next 12 months.
Most other companies charge taxes and surcharges on top of their listed rates. SunRocket also throws in $3 free international calling per month, a free extra phone number and two free directory assistance calls per month with their unlimited plans. The company also is waiving their $39.95 equipment fee when a firm signs up for the $199 annual plan.
By comparison, ITP, Verizon, Lingo, ViaTalk and Packet8 received three stars, which were the lowest rankings. Vonage, Voip.com and VoIP Your Life fell in the middle of the pack. Perhaps the greatest benefit of VoIP systems is the flexibility of the Internet versus regular phone lines.
“This flexibility with VoIP fosters greater organizational efficiency, higher productivity gains and increased revenue potential,” D’Uva said, but cautioned that VoIP is a relatively new and expanding technology, “so issues of quality, security and even network power still need be addressed as VOIP continues to evolve.”
GREENVILLE, S.C., July 29 /PRNewswire/ — NuVox, a leading communications provider across the Southeast and Midwest, announced today that its VoxIP SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Trunking product is now compatible with NEC’s UNIVERGE SV8100 and UX5000 IP communications servers. NEC passed NuVox’s strict certification program to ensure that customers will be able to quickly and easily combine NEC hardware and NuVox’s SIP Service. This allows customers to test and certify the interoperability between VoxIP SIP and NEC’s UNIVERGE IP communication systems.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090714/CL46112LOGO) VoxIP SIP is the latest in communications technology. It efficiently utilizes bandwidth to deliver voice and data services along with enhanced, business class features. VoxIP SIP supports IP communications from the user’s IPPBX (and handset) to the NuVox cloud, providing the foundation for multimedia communications. When complemented with VoxNET Gold, NuVox’s MPLS solution, SIP also allows customers to streamline communications.
“VoxIP SIP utilizes cutting edge IP technology that will change the way businesses communicate in the future,” said Sid Earley, Vice President of Marketing for NuVox. “Together with NEC, NuVox will continue to deliver the most comprehensive communications solutions to our customers.” “In today’s economy, the business case for VoxIP SIP Trunking from NuVox has never been clearer,” said Jay Krauser, General Manager, Core Solutions and Engineering, NEC. “By combining the potential cost savings of VoxIP with the productivity benefits of our unified communications applications and UNIVERGE SMB platforms, NEC and NuVox should be on every mid-sized company’s list for consideration.” NEC’s award-winning UNIVERGE SV8100 Communications Server is the ideal IP telephony solution for SMBs that wish to compete and grow their businesses over time. The UNIVERGE
UX5000 is a comprehensive integrated solution for smaller businesses designed to meet the unique challenges of both business telephony applications and VoIP.
In addition to NEC certification, VoxIP SIP is compatible with a variety of premise-based IPPBX systems including Cisco, Avaya, Ingate, and Digium with more hardware certifications coming later this year.
VoxIP SIP Trunking with NEC’s communication servers is now available to business customers in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. About NuVox
NuVox delivers customized managed communications services, information technology, data, security, and voice solutions designed specifically for business customers. NuVox serves approximately 90,000 customers in the Southeast and Midwest, and provides select services throughout the United States. NuVox delivers services via its industry-leading MPLS-based wide area private IP network. NuVox has been certified by Cisco and is a member of the Cisco Powered Program for VoxNET, the company’s MPLS wide-area networking solution. In addition to retail solutions, NuVox also provides services to government and wholesale customers. For more information, visit www.nuvox.com.
More information about NuVox can be found at:
For the first century of its existence, the telecommunications industry was tightly packed and monolithic. At its center was American Telephone & Telegraph, AT&T – more affectionately known as “Ma Bell.” This core was shattered in 1984 by Judge Greene’s gavel and the ensuing injection of competition in long distance markets. AT&T’s break-up, though, was just the warm-up act.
In the late 1980s and early ’90s, competitive forces struck the very core of the U.S. telecommunications industry: the local exchange. Seemingly overnight, local exchange carriers – primarily the “Baby Bells” – were thrust into a marketplace battle few industry observers anticipated. The first competitive entrants were cleverly dubbed “Competitive Local Exchange Carriers,” commonly known now as “CLECs.” By 2000, there were approximately 170 facilities-based CLECs operating in the U.S. with a steady stream of new entrants following.
This initial generation of facilities-based CLECs smashed the last remnants of the thought that the telecommunications market could be insulated from competition’s grasp. These CLECs were vital to setting the stage for the vast array of competitive carriers we see in today’s market. These competitive carriers range from fixed wireless operators to pure-play VoIP providers, all of which follow on the trail blazed by the CLEC sector.
The CLEC Sector At a Glance (2009) Source:New Paradigm Resources Group Inc.
Total # of Facilities-based CLECs
56
Total Sector Revenues
$27,929,800,000
Total Capital Expenditures
$2,651,700,000
Total Switches (Circuit + Packet)
1,866
Total Metro Fiber Route Miles
185,000
Total Buildings On-Net
77,900
The Continued Importance of the CLEC Sector
Today’s facilities-based CLECs are significant in the communications industry for three reasons. First and foremost, they have a physical presence — actual network infrastructure — that is fundamental for the provisioning of service to customers. Companies without facilities can also provide service, but such operators are wholly dependent on the network facilities of another provider.
The CLEC sector’s second role is in providing competitive, viable, and meaningful alternatives to incumbent telecommunications carriers. Although no single CLEC competes with any particular ILEC in all of its customer segments, against all of its services, across all of its franchise territory, one or more among the universe of CLECs does or could choose to do so. A healthy CLEC sector ensures that customers of all types have options available to them, and provides downward pressure on both pricing and margins.
Third, in their quest to identify and satisfy underserved customers, CLECs extend upgraded service to areas or specific locations that would otherwise have no recourse if the incumbent deemed it an insufficiently profitable opportunity. While this in no way guarantees that customers can obtain any service they want at a price they are willing to pay, the explosion of fiber deployment and the development of new services as a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and earlier deregulation is a testament to the catalyzing effect of CLECs.
Key CLEC Strategies
There is no single CLEC model or flavor. CLECs vary widely, more so than most other sets of telecom carriers, and assessing sector leaders and laggards ultimately depends on one’s perspective. The differences among CLECs are reflected in such things as the mix of technologies used in their networks, their strategic foci, and their customer segmentation.
CLECs’ footprints vary considerably in regards to geographic reach. CLECs with similarly sized footprints share other characteristics in common, such as comparable total revenue growth and target customer segmentation. A CLEC’s geographic reach drives, to a significant extent, the customer classes it can effectively serve. The figure below illustrates the customer focus by CLECs’ geographic scope.
The Coast-to-Coast Strategy
CLECs with a nationwide footprint principally provide advanced telecommunications services to enterprise businesses. Such CLECs became nationwide providers specifically to target this high revenue, high margin customer segment. CLECs falling into this category include Level 3, PAETEC, Time Warner Telecom, and XO Communications. These carriers share several characteristics. Specifically, they own expansive fiber networks, focus primarily on major metropolitan markets, and have total annual revenue in excess of $1 billion.
The Regional Strategy
Whereas nationwide CLECs focus primarily on enterprises, regional competitive carriers tend to focus on small and medium-size businesses, and in some instances even offer residential services. Regional CLECs operate in a handful of states to as many as a dozen or more. While some nationwide CLECs have acquired large carriers to build a national footprint, acquisitions in the regional CLEC segment tend to be much smaller and are often initiated to increase market density or expand in-region reach.
Regional CLECs vary in size much more greatly than those in the nationwide segment. Regional CLECs tend to have total annual revenues between $100 million and $800 million. With $784 million in total revenue for 2008, One Communications is the largest regional CLEC. Other notable regional competitive carriers include Integra Telecom, NuVox and ITC^Deltacom.
The Stay-at-Home Strategy
Locally-focused CLECs are the most numerous of the three CLEC geographic strategies considered here. These carriers tend to be only a fraction of the size of their larger regional and nationwide counterparts. Total annual revenues for carriers in this segment can range up to $50 million, though the majority fall well below the $20 million mark. Locally-focused CLECs include Buckeye TeleSystem, CIMCO and NTS Communications.
While some locally-oriented CLECs focus on only one market, others also build out to nearby communities from one or two core markets. Local CLECs view themselves as integral parts of the communities in which they operate and are more likely to offer residential service than regional providers.
These CLECs often offer fewer complex services than regional and nationwide competitive carriers. As most local CLECs operate in second and third tier markets, where there are often no enterprise businesses, their commercial customer base consists mostly of small businesses. This customer segment does not have the telecom requirements of medium or large businesses. As a result, local CLECs can build sustainable businesses providing only basic telephone service and DSL internet access. Some are deploying their own fiber, however, often with financing from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) fund.
Awareness around cloud computing continues to increase. As cloud computing moves beyond pure hype and into the beginning of mainstream adoption, the questions from users are changing. “The What, Why and When of Cloud Computing” illustrates how the evolution of cloud computing is progressing. Gartner’s research on cloud computing continues to be multidisciplinary and wide ranging.
For more information on NuVox Business Apps powered by Google
Just wanted to ship out a small snippet of info I ran across today that describes part of our Firewall service.
This is a highlight of what our Firewall team does internally for our security customers. They work changes and installs also, but this is truly a managed service. However, its a hybrid service too since we allow customer to “self-manage” certain features of their service via the web portal.
New Platform
NuVox has updated the platform used by the FireWall team for tracking FireWall customer security events. This allows the FireWall team to monitor each FireWall customer’s traffic in real-time and identify current security risks. Now on faster hardware, it is also the platform which supports the customer web portal reports, so customers can now retrieve reports in a much faster and efficient manner.
To Learn More Ways NuVox can help you, Contact Jonathan @ jkirby@nuvox.com 615-620-5223
Cisco Systems, facing waning demand for networking equipment from businesses, is working with phone and cable carriers on products and services that let consumers hold video conferences through their televisions.
The offerings, which build on Cisco’s TelePresence corporate-video conferencing system, will debut within 12 months. In addition to holding video chats, users will also be able to exchange messages and leave videos for friends, said Ned Hooper, head of the consumer business at Cisco.
Cisco, the largest maker of networking gear, is accelerating its push into the consumer market. In May, the company bought Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the Flip video camera, for $590 million. Cisco plans to use software from that company to expand in the market for home-networking gear, camcorders and video applications, which will grow 50 percent to $60 billion by 2013, Hooper said.
“There’s a big opportunity for us,” Hooper, 42, said in an interview. “You will start to see very big growth numbers on top of the base consumer business we report every quarter.”
Increased use of video would also benefit Cisco’s main business of selling routers and switches that direct Web traffic. Video, which Chief Executive John Chambers has called “the killer app,” needs more bandwidth than voice and data, pushing service providers and consumers to buy more gear to accommodate the bigger loads.
Internet traffic will grow fourfold by 2013 as video consumption increases, Cisco said last month. Video now accounts for a third of consumer Web traffic and will jump to 91 percent by 2013, Cisco said.
The consumer TelePresence products will integrate software from Pure Digital, Hooper said. The Flip software automatically uploads video to the Web when users plug the camera into a personal computer’s USB drive. Hooper, who also runs Cisco’s mergers and acquisitions team, said Cisco may provide a product that includes a camera and allows two-way video conversations.
NuVox is a fully Cisco powered network. For more information on NuVox’s Big Bandwidth offering, contact Jonathan. NuVox provides E Loop technology and Metro Ethernet connections.
NuVox is “lighting up” our new
Data Center in Nashville! We’d like you to celebrate with us on July 21, 2009.
Schedule of Events
1-3 pm Tours 940 Third Avenue North, Nashville …beginning every 10 minutes. 3 pm Official “Lighting” of the Data Center also at 940 Third Avenue North Meet Mike Gallagher, NuVox’s President of Strategic Markets
and Keith Coker, our Chief Technology Officer. 4:00-6:00 pm “Lighting” Celebration The Bound’ry 911 20th Avenue South Come celebrate the opening of our Nashville Data Center -what a great
way to spend an hour or two on a Tuesday night!
We’d love to see you at any (or all!) of our “lighting” events.
Just let Georganne Chevalier (gchevalier@nuvox.com)
know by July 14, 2009, which events you can attend. Complimentary valet parking at Data Center location 940 Third Ave. North
Hello, I am an Account Executive for Nuvox. I post news and information here for readers to enjoy. Please post comments on the articles. If you have any questions, please contact me at 615-620-5223.
