Competitive service provider MegaPath is taking its converged voice and data offering, known as “Duet,” to its national footprint, the company announced this week. The service, which was part of DSL.net when it was acquired by MegaPath, had been available in Northeastern markets but will now be available from 2000 central offices nationally.

To effect the change, MegaPath upgraded and expanded its Broadsoft softswitch platform to deliver voice-over-IP to its small to mid-sized business customers, said Greg Davis, vice president of marketing. “We added another set of equipment for greater redundancy and expanded capacity.”

Most customers are looking at the service as an opportunity to save money by eliminating separate Internet and voice services, Davis added.

“There are businesses out there that still buy an Internet T-1 and get their phone service from the phone company, but more and more they are realizing that by combining them, they can save money,” he said. “By going with an enterprise class service, where we are delivering the voice and data over a private circuit, not over the public Internet, and using an MPLS network to deliver quality of service, they are going to get the same toll-quality type of service that they have from the phone company.”

MegaPath is stressing that message to small businesses that might have tried or heard about most consumer-oriented VoIP services that are Internet-based, Davis said. “It has taken a little bit of an educational process to get them to understand that VoIP over the Internet is a lot different than VoIP over a private network.”

MegaPath’s prime differentiation in the converged services arena will be its customer support and service, Davis said.

“We make it simple – it is a very easy process switching to this service,” he said. “In addition to ensuring quality, there’s no interruption to the business when they switch. And we have a very simple pricing model – unlimited local and long-distance, with all the features for a low flat monthly price. Frankly, we think we provide better service and support. We’re hungry, we’re more keen to win their business and provide the kind of support they expect. This is really targeted at small to mid-sized businesses, and we are a small to mid-sized business, so we know the kind of service they expect.”