Video may have grabbed most of the hype at VON '06, including co-billing in the title of what was once the Voice on the Net conference, but most of the serious business at VON was still about selling voice over IP, with emphasis on the small and medium-sized business, or SMBs.

“Everyone on the trade show floor had a small business solution,” said Frank Paterno, vice president of marketing for Intelliverse, which announced its hosted VoIP solution for small businesses.

“I think people are really becoming intrigued with small and mid-sized businesses in the last year,” said Dan Hoffman, president and CEO of M5 Networks, a managed services provider that targets SMBs in New York City and just lined its first institutional financing to launch expansion into Boston and Chicago. “Economic data has said for some time that small to mid-sized businesses represent 80% of new job growth. This year, people have seen how much of the economy is driven by small to mid-sized businesses and this market is as well.”

123Connect, 8×8, Covad Communications, NewStep and Voxbone were among the other companies announcing new VoIP features and services that targeted small business.

Covad, which has been selling VoIP services in enterprises, is going down market because, despite all the announced efforts to reach into the smaller businesses, there is still ample opportunity there, said CEO Charlie Hoffman.

“These customers are hard to get to,” he said. “We don't run into that many VoIP players at the very small businesses. For us, it fits better with our base of broadband customers. We are selling VoIP to an existing set of customers who already know us.”

Raleigh, N.C.-based 123Connect added security services, outsourced from Perimeter Networks, to its SMB offering, acknowledging the growing need of businesses to have security solutions as more things go out over the Internet. “We've seen rapid growth in VoIP — we're up to 400 seats in just the last nine months,” said John Adgate, vice president of sales.

VoIP provider 8×8 also added features, including a softphone for road warriors and higher-quality fax capabilities for which its business customers were clamoring, said Huw Rees, vice president of sales and marketing for 8×8.

At VON, Intelliverse announced small business features for its VoIP offering which it sells to service providers, including broadband network operators, independent telcos, cable companies and ISPs, Paterno said. The new features include classic Centrex functions such as auto attendance and call transfer.

The focus on business doesn't mean that consumer VoIP is getting neglected — if anything the competition is intensifying. Vonage announced its 2 millionth customer, and founder Jeffrey Citron enjoyed the VON spotlight as a keynote speaker, even though most VoIP players today are trying to characterize themselves as unlike this industry pioneer with its high customer acquisition costs and falling stock price.

AT&T is focusing again on consumer VoIP with its CallVantage service, which was launched with fanfare in 2004 but has languished since. The company is now refocusing its efforts, said Chris Albano, product marketing director for CallVantage, and announced new softphone capabilities for CallVantage as part of that process. The CallVantage Softphone enabling customers to carry their VoIP service with them via a laptop is part of that effort. The new service sells for as little as $10 per month stand-alone or as a $5 per month addition to existing CallVantage service.

EarthLink expanded its line-powered home phone line replacement VoIP offering to nine new cities and will pass 12 million homes when the buildout, being done with Covad, is complete.

ONLINE

Check out the latest Telephony podcast for a full review of the VON '06 trade show.
www.telephonyonline.com/voip

COURTING SMALL BIZ AT VON

123CONNECT

Announcement:
Added security services to SMB package

8×8

Announcement:
Additional softphone and better fax over VoIP

COVAD COMMUNICATIONS

Announcement:
New features designed for companies with less than 20 employees

NEWSTEP

Announcement:
Added voicemail recall to fixed/mobile convergence services it sells to VoIP providers for SMBs

VOXBONE

Announcement:
Offers global phone numbers to SMBs wanting to sell internationally

YAHOO

Announcement:
Adding Vapps conferencing to its Messenger VoIP, for cheaper, easier conferences for SMBs and consumers