Clearfly brings UC to the SMB

As companies across the U.S. grapple with economic distress and belt-tightening, Clearfly Communications plans to bring unified communications to the West, promising improved productivity and significant cost savings for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Conducting service trials last year in Montana, Clearfly's headquarters and the least densely populated state south of the 48th parallel, taught the CLEC what challenges would be faced in bringing communication to rural businesses. Mauro Calvi, CEO of Clearfly, said he learned pretty quickly that coverage in rural America is often sporadic and subpar in terms of quality and reach. Furthermore, the integration of Clearfly's voice-over-IP (VoIP) app and underlying operating system proved tricky. Clearfly tested the service exclusively on Nokia Symbian handsets, although it also plans to bring Windows Mobile into the fold. The company ran into trouble identifying available access points and then configuring them for use over the data network.

Because of these issues, which Calvi said have been resolved through trial and error, Clearfly knew combining the wireless LAN network with the cellular network made the most sense. The integrated service runs over one or multiple T-1s using session initiation protocol trunking technology in a controlled fashion to ensure quality service. Calls made in the office can be routed over Wi-Fi, which offers better signal strength, higher voice quality and more reliability.

For the mobile component of its UC offering, the company works with DiVitas to seamlessly hand off calls to the cellular network when a user leaves Wi-Fi range. Unlike other VoIP providers, both companies require customer premises equipment (CPE), which Clearfly's channel partners install in conjunction with each SMB's PBX, in every market they serve.

In his own experiences, Calvi said he relied on Wi-Fi more than 50% of the time, without consciously seeking out this technology. He also found that an average company could save more than 50% of its available wireless minutes and 20% to 35% of its operating expenses.

“After using it for a year, we have come to the conclusion that the really strong selling items more than cost savings are going to be the advantage of expanding your PBX to your cell phone — being able to do four-digit dialing to your colleagues without even knowing where they are,” Calvi said. “The pure quality of Wi-Fi is another driving factor, and certainly cost savings in these harsh economic times is another strong selling item.”

The CLEC offers several tiers of its ClearPhone integrated service package that include flat-rate local calling, free long-distance and Internet access. To date, the service is available in 300 Tier 2 and 3 markets in 12 Western states, excluding California and Nevada. These are primarily Qwest's territories, but Clearfly also is often up against competition from Integra, Time Warner Cable and a number of local cable companies.