Calling All Business VoIP Providers

A few days ago I posted a small roundup of business VoIP service providers (see "Four Different VoIP Business Models"), and I have had a bunch of comments and emails about that post, wondering why I didn't list any of a number of other examples of business VoIP service providers in that post.  The truth is, business VoIP providers are thicker than summertime flies in Maine right now, and there are many more than four different variations of VoIP business models.  Most of these companies are privately held, so they are harder to track than public companies. 

There is a real lack of comprehensive information about these companies, so I am proposing that we keep a public listing of these companies in a quarterly posting on this blog.  This could be a win-win for everybody:

1. The VoIP company gets a little more publicity, and I'll post email/phone/website contact information for each company on the list.
2. The blog's readers, the VoIP companies, and I get a more accurate view of how this market is developing.
3. I get to put interesting stuff up on my blog!

Here is how I propose it should work:

• If you are a VoIP company that focuses on serving businesses, email me (at ike@practiq.com) all the info you are willing to make public, hopefully including:
  1. company name,
  2. contact phone,
  3. contact email,
  4. web site URL,
  5. number of seats served at the end of your most recent quarter,
  6. Sales strategy: wholesale/retail/both,
  7. Sales geography: selected cities/national/international (list specific geographic focus if you wish)
  8. Distribution strategy: feet on street/telemarketing/retail stores/indirect channels (agents, etc.)
  9. QoS strategy: managed/unmanaged
  10. Do you sell Internet Access?
  11. Do you sell a service that allows your customer to run their own traditional PBX (often called a "trunk replacement" service)?
  12. Do you sell a service that allows your customer to run their own IP PBX (often called a "SIP trunking" service)?
  13. Do you sell local and long distance minutes?
  14. Do you sell hosted IP PBX services?  If so, do you own and operate your own IP PBX, or do you purchase acess to a wholesale IP PBX service?
  15. What is your average number of employees per customer site?
• Any info you don't want to share I'll just list as "DNR", or Did Not Report.
• I'll compile all of the responses I get in tabular form and post it once per quarter.  First posting will be in early July so the deadline for responses for the first posting will be June 26th. 
• I'll also do interviews with executives from this company list from time to time, and post them on the blog.

So, submit your info, and we'll get going on this!  If you are a Telecosm reader and know of companies who may want to participate in this survey, you can help by sending a link to this post to your contacts, so we can get as comprehensive a view of this market as possible.

Thanks!

   

Comments

[Dave Gilbert]

SimpleSignal
Dave Gilbert- president-founder
949-429-4758
We are currently 40% wholesale and 60% retail seats
We serve customers in 42 states and bring service to 18,000 subscribers
our emphasis is on developing an army of independent agents selling our hosted PBX, trunking and managed services. We also are developing an emphasis on web 2.0 voice applications. We offer DID origination and termination throughout the world.
Our Broadsoft servers are in geographic redundant position and located in secure datacenters in Irvine Ca and Denver Co. We fully manage our own network.
Let me know if you need any other information.