SBC Launches Four Residential VoIP Trials

SBC Communications Inc. has launched trials of consumer VoIP in four cities as a prelude to what the company says will be a launch of the service “in early 2005.” The four trial sites are Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Antonio.

An SBC spokesperson would not provide details of the technology being used in the trials. SBC is delivering its VoIP service over DSL.

It is likely that SBC’s service will be very much like the other consumer VoIP services that have been in the market for some time, offering unlimited local and long-distance calling in North America. Most of those services are priced at about $25 per month or less. SBC’s feature package will include voice mail, call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID and three-way calling, all of which have become standard in consumer VoIP offerings.

SBC did say that it will offer a “Web-based portal” and call-management capabilities. It also says it will include new features, such as “find-me” and a form of do-not-disturb that will give customers the ability to specify which numbers can ring through. Another feature is click-to-call.

No Naked DSL?

A statement by Randall Stephenson, SBC COO, says “consumers will be able to choose between traditional and traditional plus next-generation voice services from SBC companies,” which may indicate that SBC will still require that DSL customers keep a traditional phone line.

SBC also has an initiative to offer broadband service of at least 20mbps to customers within 5,000 feet of a central office. According to DSL analyst Dave Burstein, reaching that figure will be “quite a challenge,” though SBC is working closely with technology providers to achieve that goal.

Stephenson adds the consumer VoIP offering was part of a plan to provide service bundles that could include wireless, broadband, video, Wi-Fi and traditional local and long-distance services.

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