As telecommunications services continue to improve and companies increase their technologies and their offerings, the customer – whether commercial or residential – continues to benefit. Now, RCN (News - Alert) is promising that its latest offering will change the way businesses of today handle calls.

 

A provider of digital television, data and voice services to residential and small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), RCN Corporation (News - Alert) has introduced a new suite of hosted phone services that promises to change the way that businesses manage calls, features and costs.

“Successful businesses today need both a reliable high speed internet connection and a phone system that’s flexible, easy to maintain, provides productivity-improving features, and is affordably priced,” said John Baker, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Product Management, in a Monday statement.

“We’ve been providing cable modem, T1, and Ethernet services for awhile. With the launch of RCN TalkWare, we’ll be able to provide an enterprise-class leading edge phone service as well. RCN TalkWare is an end-to-end digital solution that is hosted on our network, which can cut phone related expenses dramatically, without the complexity of a traditional on-site solution.”

RCN TalkWare offers more than just a broadband connection. Its Hosted VoIP feature provides a customizable control of every employee through the RCN TalkWare portal and is accessible from any PC. Customers can configure call type permissions, feature sets and messaging for each seat in the organization.

The Advanced Calling Features of TalkWare are designed to enable the business to run more efficiently. These features include an Auto Attendant to manage call routing options; Simultaneous Ring and Find Me Follow Me allows customers to reach a contact even when no one is in the office; and the Multi Access Voice Mailbox allows the user to check voicemail from any phone.

RCN also offers TalkWare SIP Trunking to enable customers to keep their new IP PBX, or legacy PBX, by replacing their Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN) lines with more cost-effective Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) trunking. Customers will have the option of adding new lines one at a time versus purchasing them in blocks of 24 over a T1 circuit.

“With RCN TalkWare, remote offices can be connected via 4-digit dialing with calls at literally no cost, and lines can be added, dropped or reconfigured without the need for a technician to come to your office to reconfigure hardware. Plus, with broadband and your phone system both from a single provider, you have the convenience of a single customer support team to call,” continued Baker.

“Leveraging our fiber-rich backbone in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Chicago markets, we can deliver an incredibly high quality of service while proactively monitoring circuits and applications end-to-end,” said Mary Jane Horne, RCN Business Services CTO, in Monday’s statement.

“Our new Enterprise grade Hosted VoIP service offers new disaster recovery options for small businesses, which eliminates service interruptions resulting from hardware failures, fiber cuts or power outages anywhere on the RCN network.”

 

“This also affords us the added flexibility to quickly evolve the RCN TalkWare features and service offering, which means we have the power to put the best products in the hands of our customers, at the right price,” Horne added.

 

Technology is enabling companies throughout the world to take better control of their telecommunications cost and infrastructure. Businesses now have more options and in order to be competitive, providers must be able to offer solutions that not only meet their needs now, but can scale according to future plans.

RCN has done well to introduce a solution that addresses the everyday challenges of its customers, while also providing optional features that can grow with the business.