Covad Communications Group Inc., the San Jose, Calif.-based high-speed Internet carrier, on Tuesday announced the availability of IP phone services for small and medium-sized businesses in 42 markets across the country. Covad is targeting businesses with 10 to 25 employees, but it also is available to companies that are bigger or smaller.
Covad announced the local and long-distance phone service will be available in 113 major markets by the end of the year. Some calling features include unified visual voice and fax mail, voice and Web conferencing, and the ability to receive calls on multiple devices from the same phone number. Covad spokesman Pavel Radda says one feature allows a company’s designated network administrator to monitor the numbers employees are calling, whether the calls are inbound or outbound, and the amount of time an employee is on a call.
Businesses can prioritize voice traffic over the broadband network to ensure the service is impeccable, according to Covad.
The company has designed a service to fully replace a customer’s phone-key system. Covad and its network of partners, which include sales agents and resellers, will install a router and wire the site if required, educate customers about the features of the new service and provide customer support, according to the company. Covad also provides a service that works with a customer’s existing PBX equipment.
Covad reports that small and medium-sized businesses adopting the new services can save between 20 percent and 40 percent compared to a traditional PBX. The company reached that conclusion by taking into account the initial hardware cost of a PBX and ongoing maintenance and upgrades to the phone system, Radda says.
Businesses implementing the IP telephony services can either pay Covad a flat price or a fee based on per-minute rates. The flat fees range from $36.95 to $59.95 a month per phone, depending on the number of stations. Under the per-minute model, businesses pay Covad $26 to $32 a month per phone, plus 3 cents to 5 cents per minute.
