What XO’s 1,000,000 VoIP Customers Predicts

XO Communications, a major competitive telecom carrier, recently achieved the milestone of reaching 1,000,000 business VoIP end users.



What should be noted is that it came as a surprise, even to XO, that the millionth customer would arrive in only 5 years. You may have raised an eyebrow, too, if you’ve been struggling with the decision on whether or not to embrace enterprise VoIP technology. We’ve all been on calls with someone using a poorly implemented VoIP solution and have been repelled by the distortion, voice clipping, noise modulation and even dropped calls of VoIP done badly. Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. After all, a million business customers must know something, right?

What they know is that professional grade communications solutions are carefully engineered to accommodate the needs of the technology. For instance, XO’s IP Flex service is implemented over a T1 line or similar commercial bandwidth connection. Terminal equipment on both ends ensures that voice packets have the bandwidth, latency, and jitter characteristics they need to travel unscathed from user to service provider. They are protected from interference by data transfers by giving voice priority over data. The circuit is engineered to ensure that you can have all the telephone calls you need in progress simultaneously and still have adequate bandwidth for high speed Internet service on the same line.

The secret to enterprise VoIP is in careful control of the network. That network must include your converged LAN plus the link to your telephone and Internet service provider. SIP Trunking, a larger scale version of integrated voice and data lines, even allows you to include multiple business locations on the same outgoing phone lines. Internal calls stay on your network and avoid telco toll charges completely.

There is a future to telecommunications services, and the million XO VoIP customers shows that we are moving to an IP-centric business environment faster than most of us realize. Those who have made the switch are now enjoying the twin benefits of added services and lower costs.

Is your business, large or small, looking at ways to save on your monthly telecom expenses while maintaining quality of service? If so, then get competitive quotes on Enterprise VoIP Voice and Data Services.

Profit From The Bandwidth Price Wars

There's a war underway, but it's not any of the ones you hear about on TV. This is a price war and it's all about commercial bandwidth. Far from getting hurt in the battle between carriers, you can be the one who profits from their skirmishing.

What's causing all this upset in what was once a staid and uncompromising telecommunications industry? Competition, that's what!

The competitive landscape shifted with the breakup of the Bell System in 1984, which allowed other companies to provide telephone service. Competitive long distance service, starting with companies like Sprint & MCI and more recently Opex, PNG, Pioneer, IBNtel, Covista and Total Call International let both businesses and consumers save money on their long distance calls while retaining their local phone service.

Two changes in technology have accelerated the advantages of competitive service providers. First is the introduction of VoIP that uses packet switched digital transmission over the Internet or private IP network instead of analog copper pair connections. The other is private regional and national fiber optic networks that can connect businesses without having to lease last mile connections from the incumbent local telephone companies.

These developments have resulted in a lot more competitors entering the lucrative telephone and Internet service marketplace. They also provide bandwidth in the form of T1 lines, SONET fiber optic services, MPLS networks, SIP trunking and Metro Ethernet. T1 and SONET offerings directly compete with similar telco offerings. SIP trunking, MPLS networks and Metro Ethernet are new on the scene and look to replace the older technologies completely.

All of these competitors, dozens in fact, have given businesses a mind boggling array of service options. They've also fueled the bandwidth war that has cut prices on many once prohibitively expensive telecom services down to levels that small, medium and larger companies can readily afford. It's not uncommon to find that the price of a T1 line or DS3 bandwidth has dropped by half or more since that service was first leased only a few years ago. Other options, such as Ethernet over Copper, can offer higher bandwidths, such as 3, 5, 10 or 45 Mbps at rates per Mbps that are mere fractions of what they would be with traditional line pricing.

This wealth of opportunity has resulted in one major dilemma, however. How can you be sure that you are getting the best rates when you are only familiar with a few of the possible suppliers? The answer to that is a telecom brokerage service that lets you enter a query online at any time and even get instant online quotes for T1 and similar line services. Consultants are available to handle queries for higher bandwidth services and special needs such as connecting multiple locations. All of this comes at no charge to the inquirer.

This rapidly expanding competitive landscape means that you can probably save on all of your voice and data communications needs. There's only one way to find out. Check the latest competitive telecom service prices and see.