Hosted VoIP

VoIP telephone systems vendor TalkSwitch (News - Alert) announced earlier this week that it has signed an agreement with D&H Distributing, a national distributor of computer and consumer electronic products.

As per the deal, D&H will market TalkSwitch’s phone systems to its network of approximately 12,000 reseller agents across the United States - and to existing US-based TalkSwitch resellers that prefer purchasing through a distributor. D&H has distribution centers in Harrisburg, Jacksonville, Chicago, Dallas and Fresno - meaning the most resellers have a distribution center in their region. D&H will be offering first-level technical support to reseller partners as well.

Jan Scheeren, president and CEO, TalkSwitch, said in a press release that he looks forward to working with D&H “to get TalkSwitch telephone systems into the hands of small businesses all across America.”

“They have ubiquitous coverage, outstanding customer service and a reputation for dealing quality products,” he said of D&H.

Rob Eby, director of purchasing, D&H Distributing, said TalkSwitch’s products are ideally suited to D&H’s customers, which are predominantly small businesses.

“This creates a natural selling opportunity for us, and we are extremely pleased to add TalkSwitch to our product offerings,” he said.

TalkSwitch’s IP PBXs - which connect to both the PSTN and IP networks - are designed for businesses with 1 to 32 lines per location.

The company offers a full suite of VoIP-ready phone systems. At the low end, the TalkSwitch 24-CA is a full-featured PBX telephone system handling 2 telephone lines, 4 local extensions and/or 10 remote extensions. Priced at under $600, the system offers advanced features such as voicemail, auto attendants, music on hold, ring groups and more. Plus it comes with a host of call handling features that are typically found in larger, more expensive systems. Best of all it can then be expanded, by networking it with other TalkSwitch units, to a maximum capacity of 16 traditional phone lines, 16 VoIP trunks and 32 extensions.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, the TalkSwitch 484vs phone system can handle 4 telephone lines, 4 VoIP trunks, 8 local extensions and 10 remote extensions, out of the box. It, too, offers a host of advanced features, but already has built-in ability to handle both VoIP and traditional telephone connections. Using this system, you can save big bucks in inter-office calls without sacrificing your connection to the PSTN. This system which costs just under $1,800, is expandable to a maximum capacity of 16 traditional phone lines, 16 VoIP trunks and 32 local and 40 remote extensions, by networking it with other TalkSwitch units.

Somewhere in the middle is the company’s newest phone system, the 244vs, which TalkSwitch introduced earlier this month. This new hybrid phone system handles 2 telephone lines, 4 VoIP trunks, 8 local extensions and 10 remote extensions, and is, of course, also expandable.

Like most of the bigger and more expensive systems, TalkSwitch’s IP PBXs also “push” office phone functionality to remote devices, such as cell phones, PDAs and home phones, and therefore deliver corporate extension dialing on any phone, anywhere. In addition, calls can be seamlessly transferred and screened.

TalkSwitch also made news on TMCnet in January when it announced that its phone systems are now fully interoperable with BandTel’s (News - Alert) SIP Trunking architecture. The move will enable customers to chose from a set of toll-quality VoIP dialing plans from BandTel, and connect to them through a TalkSwitch telephone system at their office.

For more information about TalkSwitch visit www.talkswitch.com.

For more information about D&H Distributing, visit www.dandh.com.

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Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.