VON: Covad targets very small biz

BOSTON – Covad Communications today unveiled a VoIP offering aimed at very small businesses, intending on capitalizing in interest in VoIP and providing a business-class service for companies with up to 20 employees.

Covad ClearEdge Office allows customers to continue using their analog office phones, while gaining the cost and advanced features of VoIP such as auto attendant, find me/follow me service and unified messaging. Covad provides professional installation of the DSL router and analog telephone adaptor and provides customer support.

“Quality matters for these customers,” said John Grady, director of product management. “They may be small businesses but they want to be treated as a large business would be treated. We have made the price point attractive because we are using UNE-L lines [dry copper] and we give them a dashboard [Web portal] that is less complex.”

While many VoIP and competitive players are targeting the SMB market, it is proving hard to get to, said Covad CEO Charlie Hoffman.

“This customer base fits well with out base of broadband,” he said. “We’ll start by selling VoIP into the existing customer base.”

Covad is able to save companies between 15% and 30% of their voice service costs, Grady said, without a huge upfront investment. Existing Covad customers have no upfront costs, while new Covad customers have only a $250 installation charge.

Small businesses have flirted with best-effort VoIP services but have been disappointed by the quality, Grady said.