Qwest to offer package of voice-over services – Net-protocol plan for businesses to be available mid-May

Qwest Communications said it plans to launch a voice-over Internet protocol service around mid- May.

By Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Jeffrey Allen, Qwest’s director of IP product innovation, said at a media day last week that the offering will be introduced in a couple of markets outside Qwest’s 14-state local phone region.

The voice-over-IP offering will be targeted to businesses and will include local, long-distance, Internet telephone calling, dedicated Internet access and features to meet customer calling patterns and needs.

Allen characterized the effort as part of a trend toward "ubiquity," or the communications industry’s equivalent of a Starbucks coffee shop on every corner.

Voice-over-IP technology enables any laptop or personal computer to act as an employee’s office with phone call and conferencing capabilities. Rather than voice services being a stationary application, users can integrate their communications services anywhere, any time.

Customers of the Qwest service will have a "personal communications dashboard" integrated with Microsoft Office that will enable them to select where to forward specific calls and how to prioritize voice mails, among other features.

"Peers can know where you are, just like in instant messaging," Allen said.

Packages and pricing weren’t disclosed. But Allen said the offering moves Qwest into a space where it is selling value-added services that have higher gross-profit margins. Drawing a comparison to traditional telephone services, Allen noted that Qwest doesn’t make much money on providing just a dial tone but does make good margins on the features on top of a dial tone, such as call waiting and caller ID.

Allen and other Qwest executives stressed that it will take some time for the company to generate significant revenues from voice-over IP.

Allen also said Qwest wants to keep the service as unregulated as possible and is working closely with its regulatory and legal folks on such issues. Eventually Qwest would like to offer the product within its 14-state region.

Voice-over IP has been ballyhooed since the late 1990s but has been stalled by the economy and issues over how to resolve voice quality issues. Voice bits are sent in packets over the Internet, and a complaint has been a less-than-seamless quality in conversations. Many of those technical issues have been resolved, Allen said.

Arapahoe County-based ICG Communications in February launched a voice-over-IP offering called "VoicePipe" for small to medium-size businesses.

Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications also has voice-over-IP technology, and last year Avaya Inc., which has a large presence in Colorado, introduced systems to make it easier for businesses to integrate voice communications over an Internet protocol.

Analysts are intrigued, predicting voice-over-IP will displace millions of traditional phone lines over time. But there are still hurdles.

Forrester Research, a technology research firm, in December wrote that few North American executives are convinced they need to deploy such technology right now, in part because the cost savings aren’t yet compelling when adjusted for the risk.

Said Allen: "It’s happening more slowly than anyone imagined, but it’s happening."

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