Bandwidth.com Taps Channel for Nationwide IP Voice Network

Bandwidth.com is taking a run at becoming a next-generation CLEC. It will be certified to do business as in all 50 states by the end of July. And, it will roll out VoIP origination to 195 LATAs by the end of the year. To fill up this network, it has targeted indirect channels and launched its partner program June 1. Already two master agents – Telecom Brokerage Inc. (TBI) and World Telecom Group – are processing orders with Bandwidth.com.

In June, the company rolled out its first offer on its new network, an integrated access service available in 300 metro markets. The BoxSet service bundles feature unlimited calling, Internet service and the capability to work with virtually any phone system – all at a flat-rate price point as low as $179 per month.

Becoming a CLEC might seem like a big leap for a company that was founded in 1999 as an agent and became a data reseller in 2003. But, it is no stranger to IP telephony; the company has been an ITSP since 2004, processing and billing VoIP calls over a Sylantro softswitch using originating and terminating services of other carriers. Now, it has its own Sonus-based backbone with interconnections in 95 percent of the country’s LATAs, enabling it to provide its own DIDs and originating and terminating services.

“It gives them a much broader swath of the market that they can cover under their control and not have to be reliant on others,” said John Macario, president of consulting firm Savatar, which is know for its demand-side and channel research in the VoIP space. “I think it’s a great move. You’ve heard me say a million times that nobody is taking a dominant position in this market. I don’t know that it will give them that dominant position, but it’s certainly a necessary step for anyone who wants to dominate.”

As in its previous three annual studies of the market, Savatar’s most recent research, published in March, shows no one category of VoIP provider has gained a foothold in capturing the SMB market. Savatar said its study shows that SMBs that already have deployed VoIP are buying from equipment providers (39 percent), VARs (20 percent) and, to a lesser extent, traditional telcos (14 percent).

As a nationally branded IP voice provider, Bandwidth.com will face unavoidable comparison to XO Communications Inc., the No. 2 CLEC, which offers its own VoIP services. It also will be chasing after the same market as the ILECs and the cable companies.

But Macario said Bandwidth.com’s primary competition will be “inertia and business as usual.” “While they are likely to run into the XOs and the LECs and the cable companies from time to time, if they do this correctly, they will have an opportunity to be the first in to acquire customers that are currently being underserved,” Macario said.

Execution always is the caveat to success. On the network side, Bandwidth.com has installed a Sonus-based network with switches in six data centers – Los Angeles; New York; Atlanta; Dallas; McLean, Va., and Sunnyvale, Calif. On the OSS side, it is using some of the provisioning capabilities of the Sonus platform and the homegrown billing system it’s been using for the past five years.

Bandwidth.com Recruits New Channel Chief

And, on the sales side, the company has decided to beef up its channel strategy. The company has recruited Jeff Uphues, the former president of Voila IP, as its vice president of partner services.

“The channel is a big part of our strategic plan,” explained Bandwidth.com Chairman Henry Kaestner. “We’ve known that the products and systems that we had developed for the channel were top-notch, but that we needed an established leader that knew the needs of VARs, integrators and agents. It seemed that everyone we talked to recommended Jeff. We couldn’t be more excited that he chose to join our team when he had several other opportunities.”