SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 8x8, Inc.
(Nasdaq: EGHT), provider of Packet8 (http://www.packet8.net) residential, business
and video Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services, today
announced that a recent report by telecom research firm AMI Partners
(http://www.ami-partners.com) ranked its Packet8 Virtual Office service as the #1
hosted VoIP phone system choice by U.S. based small and medium sized
businesses.
According to the SMB Interest Perks Up in Hosted VoIP report, compiled
in April 2007, Packet8 Virtual Office had 6,000 customers, ahead of
competitive offerings from XO Communications, Cbeyond and Covad. AMI's
research methodology was based on key inputs including end user surveys of
SMB and mid market companies as well as briefings, data and publicly
available financial statements and news releases from voice communications
vendors.
"AMI Partners' recent VoIP report is a very insightful and
comprehensive study of the rapidly growing market for hosted VoIP business
phone services," said 8x8 Vice President of Marketing & Sales Huw Rees. "We
are very pleased that our Virtual Office solution, which is based on 8x8's
own technology, was one of the first hosted PBX solutions to be deployed
worldwide and that it has gained significant market acceptance with more
than 7,000 businesses now using the service."
Hosted VoIP phone services deliver PBX functionality as a service
available over the IP network with all equipment and management hosted
externally by the service provider. Monthly service charges paid for hosted
telephony business services include access charges, usage charges and
charges for value added features such as find-me-follow-me, integrated
voicemail/email, web based call logs, etc.
The AMI Partners report claims "SMBs are getting used to doing things
in a hosted fashion. They are already implementing hosted solutions for
collaboration, business applications and infrastructure solutions --
e-mail, e-commerce, CRM, ERP, accounting, personal productivity, document
sharing, security and backup from small innovative companies that are
providing hosted solutions that can be integrated through hosted solution
integration platforms like AppExchange from salesforce.com."
Offering a combination of unlimited local and long distance calling in
the United States and Canada plus advanced PBX features for just $49.99 per
month/extension, the Packet8 Virtual Office solution is currently being
used by more than 7,000 U.S. business organizations. Virtual Office enables
small and medium sized enterprises to secure distributed corporate class
telecommunications capabilities for a fraction of the cost of wireline
business services from traditional phone companies. Unlike comparably
priced single line VoIP phone services which offer features more suited to
individual residential users, Packet8 Virtual Office provides companies
with complete business phone system functionality along with the
flexibility to operate each extension from any geographically dispersed
location with high-speed Internet access.
The Packet8 Virtual Office service includes an auto attendant,
worldwide extension dialing, business class voicemail, a full featured
conference bridge and ring groups, in addition to a rich variety of other
business class PBX and dial tone features not normally found on
premise-based PBX systems. Packet8 Virtual Office reduces an organization's
total cost of ownership for telecommunications services because of its
minimal initial investment combined with unlimited worldwide calling to
other business extensions and Packet8 subscribers, unlimited local and long
distance business calling in the United States and Canada and access to
Packet8's low per-minute international calling rates to overseas wireline
and mobile phone numbers.
About 8x8, Inc.
VoIP (voice over internet protocol) service provider 8x8, Inc. offers
internet-based telephony solutions (http://www.packet8.net) for individual
residential and business users as well as small to medium sized business
organizations. In addition to regular Packet8 VoIP service plans priced as
low as $24.99 per month for unlimited anytime calling to the U.S. and
Canada, 8x8 offers the Packet8 Tango Video Terminal Adapter and DV 326
VideoPhone along with accompanying monthly service plans also priced at
$24.99 per month. Packet8 Virtual Office, 8x8's VoIP phone system for small
to medium sized businesses, is a hosted PBX solution comprised of powerful
business class features. Companies subscribing to Virtual Office pay just
$49.99 per month per extension for enterprise class PBX functionality along
with unlimited local and long distance calling in the U.S. and Canada.
Packet8 Softalk(TM), 8x8's PC-based soft phone client, offers high quality
voice and video in-network calling as well as outbound calling to the PSTN.
For additional company information, visit 8x8's web site at http://www.8x8.com.
NOTE: 8x8, the 8x8 logo, Packet8, the Packet8 logo, Packet8 Virtual
Office, Packet8 Softalk and Packet8 Tango are trademarks of 8x8, Inc. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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