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Telecommunications giant Verizon announced voice over IP and Internet access packages designed to respond to the rapid growth of VOIP in the small to medium-size business realm and the resulting demand for high-speed Internet connections. In addition, the offers support Verizon Global Wholesale customers’ marketing efforts to midmarket businesses.
The first package combines Verizon’s SIP (session initiation protocol) Gateway Service with associated router hardware. SIP Gateway Service transports VOIP traffic between packet-based IP networks and the traditional telephone network and is designed to be a manageable access point for cost-conscious companies looking to upgrade their communications capabilities. In addition to providing access to Verizon’s expansive IP local network and its telephone number inventory, wholesale customers can offer small and medium-sized businesses a new NEC Univerge SV8100 IP PBX and its associated installation and maintenance bundle at a discount. Both the SIP connection and the NEC Univerge SV8100 PBX are priced at a discount with this package, but Verizon noted the service and hardware discounts expire on June 30.
The second new package, Internet Dedicated T1, also combines discounted service and hardware. It provides a high-capacity connection for 30 or more users and is designed for transmitting high-volume e-mail traffic, transferring large files, or hosting Web sites from virtually anywhere. The package, based on T1 technology, combines 24 channels of broadband signal into a 1.544 megabit per second (Mbps) service, with customer equipment available to enable the service. Quality of service (QoS) assurance is offered as an option, at an additional cost. The equipment offered in this package is either a Samsung Ubigate iBG 1000 for data-only applications or a model 1003 for data and voice services combined. The discounts on service and equipment expire on March 31, 2011.
“By creating new VoIP and Internet packages that include both services and hardware, we’re giving our wholesale customers new ways to support their small- and medium-sized business customers in a time when every nickel and every efficiency counts toward success,” said Quintin Lew, senior vice president of marketing for Verizon Global Wholesale. “Our goal continues to be to arm our wholesale customers with the tools that help them to help small and medium-sized businesses succeed.”
For midmarket companies with a larger appetite for Internet access, a third new promotional offer features Internet access with an Ethernet connection at either 5 Mbps or 10 Mbps. This Internet Dedicated Ethernet service is discounted and bundled with a Samsung iBG1000 router, the cost of which is credited back over the initial year of service. Targeted at businesses that intend to consolidate voice, video and key business applications onto a converged IP network, Lew said this offer delivers a single-vendor solution that end-user customers can leverage to fit their business model. The Ethernet service discount and the monthly credit offer for the cost of the router are scheduled to expire on March 31, 2011.
“Small businesses need their carriers to go beyond a one-size-fits-all solution,” Lew said. “These Internet offers cover the key speeds and features that growing small and medium-sized enterprises require to solve modern connection issues and engage the world in new and aggressive ways.”