* BWA carriers make telco bypass strides
Later this week, facilities-based regional services provider TransAria intends to formally launch its first broadband wireless VoIP service, targeted at businesses. In doing so, it aims to become a dial-tone competitor to the incumbent local-exchange carrier in its territory, Qwest.
And last week, regional broadband wireless access (BWA) provider TowerStream announced telco-free VoIP services through a resale deal with prominent VoIP service provider Vonage http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/080205-vonage.html?rl. TowerStream serves Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, the greater Newport and Providence, R.I., areas, New York City and San Francisco.
Both companies previously offered Internet access; now, they are also assuming the role of turnkey voice-service provider across their infrastructures. This is the latest step by BWA providers to help customers find competitively priced services that can be up and running faster than traditional telco services.
“We’re an alternative choice to the telco,” says Todd Graetz, CTO and vice president of operations at TransAria, which offers BWA services in 14 markets across five Northwestern states and Alaska.
The company now offers IP Centrex-like services and single-line services. They are priced on a per-station basis, depending on volume, and are available first in the nine markets in which TransAria competes with Qwest in Montana. TransAria will then cover all dialing exchanges in its other markets “in the very near term,” Graetz says.
He adds that TransAria has worked with a third party to meet both FCC and state public utility commission mandates for E-911 emergency calling capabilities.
TowerStream COO Jeff Thompson says his company’s VoIP service “removes the fingerpointing” from troubleshooting a VoIP service on a telco’s last-mile circuit. Telcos providing access links “typically aren’t very enthusiastic about troubleshooting a Vonage service. We, however, are happy to do so,” he says.
TowerStream charges $25 per phone line on top of its Internet access fees for the VoIP service. Thompson estimates that this pricing model works out to “30% to 50% less than Verizon’s integrated T-1 rates [for voice and data service], depending on how far you are from the central office. And you will never touch legacy phone network.”
