By Sharla Sikes

With the adoption rate rising in most of the developed countries of the world, VoIP is certainly the future of communications—especially for businesses, but also for consumers.

The question is, when is that future?

I’ve read studies and reports citing anywhere from three to 12 years. TMC says that 2008 will be “The year for SMB VoIP.”

“My contention is that there have been three major and one tertiary reason why SMB VoIP hasn’t taken off until now,” David H. Yedwab, founding partner, Market Strategy and Analytics Partners LLC, wrote on TMC.net. “And that these impasses are, in 2008, finally largely removed and that SMBs — likely to continue to be the economy’s engine, even in a downturn — will be turning to VoIP solutions in greater numbers beginning in 2008.”

According to Yedwab, the three impasses were awareness of and confidence in VoIP solutions, significantly higher price points of VoIP systems versus older technology and the fact that in the past there wasn’t a convenient, local place for SMBs to acquire a VoIP system. He also notes that broadband Internet services are far more readily available now, with most metro and suburban areas covered. Many rural areas are still (and may remain for a good long time) dependent on dial-up or satellite Internet service.

It seems that VoIP providers should be targeting SMBs as their bread-and-butter customers—and most are.  

Cablevision Systems, for instance, recently expanded its Optimum Voice for business services. Optimum Voice now includes up to 12 lines per customer, and without too many modifications to its existing system.

“Cablevision has adapted its standard consumer cable VoIP service into a package for small businesses that have 12 or fewer phones and/or may be using an analog key system for phone features. Thousands of small businesses in any service provider’s area fit this description. The Cablevision scheme provides these businesses with voice service and a slate of features at a price much lower than they could obtain from legacy circuit-switched providers,” said Charlotte Wolter for TMC.net.

Cablevision’s service is as plain-Jane as it gets, though; the stripped-down package offers the features standard for consumers, but without unified communications that many VoIP providers peddle to their business customers. For SMBs looking for a basic, simple program, Cablevision may have hit pay dirt.

However, some companies may prefer and require a more involved system. There’s far too many setups for us to go into here, but business owners today have an incredible number of options.

Businesses of all sizes rely upon communication: with clients, employees, vendors, associations. It doesn’t matter what field or industry. The ability to customize voice, video, text, e-mail and instant messages is a boon found in VoIP services. Whether a bare-bones solution or an advanced plan fits a particular business better is up to management’s vision for the present and the future, but either way, VoIP is the logical choice.

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