SBC Communications Inc. will use longtime consumer VoIP service provider deltathree Inc. as the basis of its U-verse Voice consumer service, it was revealed Tuesday. An 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by deltathree contained information about the contract.
SBC becomes the second U.S. incumbent to outsource its consumer VoIP services to deltathree, joining Verizon Inc., which announced its service October 2004. Neither ILEC directly revealed it had chosen an outsourcing strategy; rather, the revelation that the services were outsourced came from deltathree.
"We are exclusively using deltathree," says Sue McCain, a spokesperson with SBC.
deltathree has a long history providing international VoIP services under the iConnectHere brand. The company initially offered PC-to-PC calling, then PC-to-phone and, in the last year, introduced phone-to-phone services.
A Long-Term Relationship
McCain indicates SBC intends to use deltathree for some time. "SBC is building a fiber network to home (the company's Lightyear project), and we will deploy our own voice-over-IP service at that time. But, until then, we will use deltathree."
For the fiber network, she says, "We won't start building until late 2005. It will take a couple of years."
SBC has been conducting tests of its consumer service in several locations within its service area: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Antonio, Texas. Those services will continue on a trial basis, McCain says, while SBC finalizes the infrastructure it needs to support the service
The feature set will include "a lot of the same features that are available today, such as do not disturb and find-me/follow-me," as well as a Web portal, says McCain. "There is always room for enhancements, and, based on customer responses, I think we will see enhancements."
McCain cited as an example SBC's existing one-mailbox feature for its Cingular mobile phone and residential wireline customers. The feature gives access to voice mail, e-mail, instant messages and even faxes in one mailbox. It could possibly be adapted for an IP voice service.
Why Outsource?
An SBC spokesperson could not comment on why the company chose an outsourcing strategy for its consumer VoIP. "[We’re] more focused on delivering service than talking about how we do it," said the spokesperson. "Once we get to the point where we roll out the service, then we are more likely to talk about it."
