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Actiontec Electronics has announced that it has signed 20 resellers for it VoSKY line of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) products. Most notable is the suite of VoIP-to-PBX (News - Alert) gateways that enable businesses to slash phone expenses by adding multiple outgoing VoIP lines to the office PBX at very low cost. This announcement comes just one month after Actiontec launched its VoSKY reseller program for VARS that offers telecom and networking services.

 

Users of all VoSKY products are granted access to Skype (News - Alert), the world’s largest VoIP network with 113 million registered users. Owned by eBay (News - Alert), Skype has no signup or monthly access fees. Skype users enjoy free calls to other Skype users and pay as little as 2 cents per minute to non-Skype users, even for overseas calls.

 

The PBX gateway VoSKY Exchange is the first Skype-certified solution enabling businesses of 10 to 300 employees to take full advantage of Skype. No existing PBX equipment, phones or user PCs are required; installation can take a mere two hours and it allows every phone extension in the office to make and receive Skype calls. In addition, the solution can yield major savings for businesses with multiple locations, remote workers and/or customers, partners and suppliers in other cities.

 

The VoSKY line of products also includes VoSKY Chatterbox, a plug-and-play USB speakerphone enabling users to make headset-free Skype calls through their PCs. The VoSKY Internet Phone Wizard is a small hardware accessory that enables users to make and receive Skype calls on any traditional handset. The VoSKY Call Center is designed to be a peripheral that extends Skype calls to any mobile phone.

 

As a VoSKY partner, resellers will receive on-site and online sales and technical training sessions, sales and marketing tools, technical support, special certified reseller pricing, media campaigns, lead generation and other services to support reseller’s efforts. Resellers are also able to participate in beta testing of new VoSKY products.  

 

Actiontec Electronics focuses on the development of products and services that allow consumers to leverage broadband Internet connectivity. Actiontec’s products include broadband modems, home gateways, wireless networking devices, routers, VoIP adapters and digital entertainment devices all sold through retail channels and broadband service providers.

 

Skype offers significant benefit to users in that they can leverage their Internet connections already in place to make inexpensive, if not free, phone calls. eBay garnered much attention when it purchased eBay for an amount far beyond the company’s annual revenues The potential for Skype, however, is what eBay was banking on when it made the multi-billion dollar purchase.

 

Skype has not necessarily made the waves that some industry experts expected at first, however. Much of this could be due to the challenges that companies face in reliance on Internet-based phone connections. Reliability and sound quality have led consumer concerns, as well as security when used in the enterprise.

 

VoIP is gaining in popularity, among consumers and businesses alike. The quality is improving and the cost benefits are being realized by customers around the world. Actiontec is hoping that the momentum continues and will transfer over into demand for their products and services.