Do 100,000 Business VoIP Users Know Something You Should?

Small and Medium Businesses, also known as SMBs, need every competitive advantage they can get. In telecommunications, many are still leery of changing technology to embrace VoIP or Voice over IP telephony which has been the darling of major corporations and some consumers. Part of this hesitance has been concern over the expense and expertise needed to converge voice and data services on a single network. At the lower end, it can be dissatisfaction over the quality and reliability of Internet carried telephone calls based on horror stories from consumer oriented services. Consequently, many companies stick with what they have and adopt a wait and see posture toward IP phone systems.

Meanwhile, over 100,000 business users in 7,500 businesses nationwide are enjoying the cost savings and increased flexibility of a suite of VoIP services designed specifically for the SMB, according to an announcement by XO Communications. XO is a major business telecommunications provider with its own nationwide fiber optic network. Many businesses use XO's T1, DS3 and optical carrier services in lieu of more expensive options from incumbent phone companies. By expanding their suite of offerings to include IP based telephony, XO has become an alternative full service phone company targeted to business users rather than consumers.

XOptions Flex has some unique features that make it better suited to small and medium business locations with up to 160 seats per location. From a technical perspective, XO has a huge advantage over other providers in that it provides the transmission network as well as the services. There is no need to suffer the vagaries of Internet latencies, packet loss and jitter that can mangle your phone conversations without warning. XO's private IP network provides adequate bandwidth with voice packets prioritized over data. XOptions Flex is a bundled service that is also called Integrated Voice and Data. Other providers offer integrated voice and data lines, but XO's product uses dynamic bandwidth allocation. Any bandwidth not being used for voice service is automatically allocated for data use.

What this comes down to is a basic service package that provides unlimited local calling, a package of long distance and inbound minutes, dedicated Internet access up to T1 speeds of 1.544 Mbps and web hosting. Options include expansion of the dynamic bandwidth, blocks of DID extensions, toll free numbers, auto attendant, managed security and additional phone lines.

XOptions Flex also works with the phone equipment you already have. No need to make a major capital investment until that makes sense, if it ever does. XOptions Flex is compatible with analog phones, hybrid key systems and traditional PBX systems using digital trunks, ISDN-PRI or even analog business lines.

If you own or manage a small to medium size business with one to many locations, it could well be worth your while to review your options with one of our expert business telecom consultants. It doesn't cost anything to chat and you might be looking a significant cost reduction opportunity for your voice and data communications needs.