New Hosted VoIP Service From Intermedia

ITBE columnist Paul Mah looks at a new hosted VoIP service from Intermedia that can be coupled with hosted Microsoft Exchange to deliver a full unified communications package.

"Small and mid-sized businesses considering hosted PBX service just gained one new option as of the beginning of this month. Intermedia, which holds the reputation as the world's largest provider of Microsoft Exchange hosting, has launched a hosted PBX with unlimited domestic calling and extension dialing. In addition, the company says its new service comes with unified communications (UC) capabilities such as voicemail-to-e-mail and click-to-call.

Subscribers to the hosted PBX service will be able to use VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol technology, to make or receive phone calls without having to invest in any back-end equipment. A robust Internet connection is required to the tune of about 90 kbps per call though, and a hosted Exchange account from Intermedia is also required. In addition, hosted Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) service is required to enable the UC features."