Voip provider business rate plan

Ravi Sakaria is hearing voices, and it's a good thing. The 33-year-old co-founder, president and CEO of voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider start-up VoicePulse Inc. is a trailblazer for a technology that is rapidly gaining mainstream acceptance. Homes and businesses around the world are leaving their regular phone service behind to make their calls for a fraction of the price over the Net. That the North Brunswick, New Jersey, company came into existence in January of this year serving eight area codes and now covers 30 shows how fertile VoIP can be for entrepreneurs.

"The growth rate is tremendous. As it becomes known that the quality is equivalent to traditional telephone service, the features exceed it and the cost is lower, then that uptake is only going to increase," says Sakaria. Julia Mermelstein, senior consulting analyst with research think tank ABI Research in Oyster Bay, New York, also sees a trend of steadily increasing sales in 2004. While large enterprise will likely be slow to adopt VoIP, consumers and small business will be on the forefront. That's where companies like VoicePulse are focusing their business models.

Entrepreneurs don't have to look into becoming service providers to get into VoIP. Both digital phone hardware and custom software applications based on VoIP standards will be important components for the burgeoning technology. Mermelstein also sees great potential for entrepreneurial technology resellers to add VoIP to their service offerings.

Sakaria has advice for those looking to get into VoIP: "If you don't look at the promise of the technology and how you're going to add value as far as features go, then you're really missing out on rounding out your business plan. That's where the opportunity lies."

With VoIP still in the process of proving its mettle, now is the time for entrepreneurs to get in on the ground floor and start hearing voices for themselves.