MCI Adds Managed PBX, IP Trunking to Business VoIP Suite

MCI Inc. has expanded its voice-over-IP (VoIP) suite of services to include two new services: Managed IP PBX and IP Trunking Services.

The new services work with MCI’s Advantage hosted PBX service, providing a migration strategy for the company to work with customers that do not want to move entirely from TDM PBXs to VoIP.

Many purveyors of hosted PBX services are discovering that potential business customers often do not wish to give up PBXs, at least not initially, because of the investment they have made in the equipment or because there are certain features not yet replicated in the VoIP service or because they do not yet trust the technology entirely.

Some customers wish to use just VoIP trunking initially to reduce long-distance costs and link remote offices inexpensively. Others do not want to buy an IP PBX but would be interested in being a tenant on a shared IP PBX. Still others would like to add an IP PBX but do not want to manage it themselves.

The new MCI services accommodate those gradual steps in a migration to full VoIP. They also help companies tailor VoIP services to a particular business while retaining existing infrastructure.

With the two new products MCI’s VoIP portfolio consists of four services for enterprises, the new Managed IP PBX and IP Trunking, as well as its flagship Hosted IP Centrex and IP Integrated Access offerings.

The Managed IP PBX service uses the Cisco Systems Inc. CallManager platform with assistance in design and implementation from NEC Unified Solutions, a provider of design, manufacture, servicing and installation of telecommunication systems. The MCI IP Trunking offering is available initially only with Cisco CallManager with plans to roll out additional IP PBX platforms in 2006.

MCI will provide the ongoing management of the IP PBX, as well as aid the planning, design and implementation phases of the service.

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