AltiGen gets into the IP phone business

Tired of building networks for phones that don’t take full advantage of the features they’ve created, AltiGen Communications has entered into the IP phone business with a plug-and-play model that it claims will offer cost-effective VoIP to its small-to-medium-sized business customers.

“Up to this point we’ve been certifying phones from third party vendors, however those phones haven’t met all the needs of our customers,” said Richard DeSoto, AltiGen's senior vice president of marketing.

Installation, he said, is a hassle. More importantly, he said, “a lot of customers upgrade from a large key system or an old PBX so they’re used to a lot of the same features and many IP phones don’t have that.” Finally, he said, AltiGen is taking on the market with a $299 phone that he said is “$50 lower than any other phones that are out there except for the bare bones calling phone.”

The AltiGen phones, he said, are made to be controlled by IT professionals within a company. They offer plug-and-play 10/100 Ethernet connections and software downloads to make it easy for both businesses and tele-workers to hook up to the network.

“These all work on an IP network,” he said. “You have the same connection for the phone as the PC. This is designed for an IT staff to install, not a facilities phone staff.”

And it’s designed to bring tele-workers into the IP space.

“All you need is a DSL or cable modem at the remote location,” DeSoto.