Business VoIP

PAETEC (News - Alert) is personalizing business communications for medium-sized and large businesses, enterprise organizations and institutions across the United States. The company offers a comprehensive suite of voice, data, and IP services, as well as enterprise communications management software, network security solutions, CPE, and managed services.

 

Through recent acquisitions of McLeod USA and Allworx (News - Alert), Paetec is actively growing their business, giving it presence in 41 U.S. states. I had the chance to pose several questions to Lia Lando of Paetec. Lia’s responses regarding the state of the company and the company’s outlook on the industry appear below.

 

 

LL: On February 28, PAETEC completed a merger with US LEC making us one of the largest competitive communications providers in the United States. On March 1, as a result of the merger, PAETEC Holding Corp. became a publicly traded company under the NASDAQ symbol, “PAET”.

 

LL: PAETEC has announced a planned acquisition of McLeodUSA, also one of the nation’s largest communications providers, but with a focus west of the Mississippi River. The planned acquisition would give the company a national presence in 41 of the 48 contiguous states.

 

LL: Over the past years, there’s been a steady march towards a single, IP-based platform for all services. While in the past, a company could use many technologies and vendors such as Frame Relay for data, TDM-based PBX (News - Alert) for Voice, and ISDN-based video-conferencing, now nearly all services can be broken down in the IP-layer, transmitted via a secure IP-based MPLS network and reassembled into the original service.

 

Businesses are now more dependent on communications than ever before in history. Service Interruptions or breaches in IT security can bring a company to its knees. I believe the next push will be in IT security, and how to keep sensitive conversations, E-Mails and files always available and always secure.

 

LL: SIP has greatly changed the rules of the game, and allowed immense advances in communications. SIP allows end-user devices to work seamlessly together, and consequently, a paradigm shift in thinking for the whole industry. It’s been the catalyst for building intelligence in the network, which introduces new products and services and new levels of customer support.

 

LL: The communications market has never been brighter. Businesses are now more dependent on communications, and new advances in security and redundancy have arisen to meet that demand. For nearly 100 years, the technology for a phone conversation was largely unchanged using an analog POTS line. However, in the past 10 years, there have been more advances than ever before, and that trend will continue through wireless.

 

LL: PAETEC’s revenue is nearly all based in the United States.

 

LL: The telecommunications field is unique, where two companies can work as valued partners in the wholesale space and fierce competitors in the retail space. We consider those companies as our most trusted vendors and our most formidable competitors.

 

LL: Our customers have been asking for hosted solutions to augment or in some cases, replace, CPE-based solutions. Rather than a communications provider simply providing the transmission lines between customers’ equipment, intelligence in the network can greatly reduce the burden off local IT staff, ensure the most up-to-date upgrades and provide efficiency never before possible between locations.

 

LL: The communications market looks like it will continue to consolidate into a few large players which will focus more on all seven OSI layers rather than their own niche as in the past. Advanced services will continue to grow and even introduce new services such as hosted software. Intelligence, which previously resided in PBXs or even PCs themselves may now be on redundant, network-based systems requiring more bandwidth in the local loop. Watch for expanded technologies to reach the end user such as Gig-E, fixed wireless or even WiMAX.

 

LL: A variety of communication-based solutions for their businesses, including unique and innovative products.

 

LL: All businesses with a need to communicate.

 

LL: PAETEC is different from the rest because we pay close attention to the needs of our customers on an individual basis. We offer personalized solutions tailored to the unique requirements of each customer and assume ownership of the customer concerns. We recognize each customer is unique and therefore, no two customers have identical needs or pricing.

 

Additionally, customer service is a clear differentiator for PAETEC. In addition to a robust customer portal and dedicated account representatives, customers have access to a live voice without any voice prompts within seconds to address needs. The goal is to answer 90 percent of all customer service calls by a live person in 20 seconds or less.

 

LL: Prediction: Web-based firms such as Google (News - Alert) and Yahoo will disrupt residential service market with their own voice service offerings.