8x8 announces that at the end of February 2010 its subscriber base reached a new milestone of 20,000 business customers. For the December quarter, 8x8's average business customer subscribed to 7.3 paid services.

Over the past year and throughout the economic downturn, 8x8 has added approximately 1,000 net new business customers each quarter as small businesses increasingly seek ways to reduce expenses and improve the efficiency of their operations. The 8x8 Virtual Office phone service provides these customers with new, IP-enabled telephony capabilities along with advanced features and unlimited local and long distance calling -- all at a much lower cost than traditional landline phone services. In addition to the 8x8 Virtual Office service, 8x8 offers hosted Call Center and Key System services as well as IP Trunking and Unified Communications solutions, all of which are designed to operate over a business' existing broadband Internet connections, enabling employee connectivity from anywhere a high speed Internet connection exists.

New Edge Networks announces that 8x8 has established a direct connection to the New Edge AX ecosystem of business applications. 8x8's VoIP network is now directly connected to the nationwide New Edge network.

Aligning with the New Edge AX ecosystem enables 8x8 to deliver its hosted IP voice and unified communications solutions to business customers over a secure, enterprise class IP network environment. 8x8 customers can run business-critical applications over the New Edge IP network or choose the New Edge MPLS network for end-to-end traffic prioritization and predictable application performance.

8x8 has upgraded its VoIP network to support an industry standard wideband audio codec to enable HD calling for business phone service subscribers. 8x8's new HD business voice feature delivers significantly enhanced audio fidelity to users of its 6753i, 6755i and 6757i IP phones. Subscribers using these telephones can now enjoy a more "in-person" conversation and richer calling experience as if all parties on a call were standing in the same room. While Voice over IP services have long been able to mimic the same voice quality as the traditional PSTN, 8x8's new HD voice service now greatly surpasses any audio capabilities of the legacy PSTN network. This new service allows all calls within a small business or distributed enterprise to benefit from the efficiencies accompanying in-person conversations, with easier to recognize voices, better understanding of accented speakers and greater voice clarity in the presence of background noise.

8x8 business phone service subscribers are earning thousands of bonus dollars this holiday season through a company-sponsored word of mouth referral program that pays healthy cash rewards for recommending new subscribers to its service.

The 8x8 "Business Referral Program" rewards existing subscribers and registered partners for submitting business referrals that become customers of 8x8's money-saving VoIP phone services, which include the 8x8 Virtual Office solution, a hosted PBX phone service now in use by over 18,000 businesses. Participants in the program have an opportunity to earn unlimited cash rewards to the tune of $100 for each qualifying Virtual Office extension the new customer orders, provided they remain a subscriber in good standing for at least 60 days. This results in a win-win situation for both 8x8 and its subscribers, as the company receives a valuable, cost-effective lead backed by a personal recommendation and the subscriber receives compensation for sharing a positive user experience with friends and colleagues.

8x8 has been awarded United States Patent Number 7,606,221 entitled, "Network Communications Having Endpoint Device with Automatic Connection to IPBX." The patent issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on October 20, 2009.

The patent relates to a telephony communications approach that implements an auto-discovery feature that enables an endpoint device to automatically locate and establish communication with a desirable server in a web of interconnected servers. In one specific example implementation, the endpoint device is an Internet-type telephone communicating with a remote server in an Internet-based Private Branch Exchange.

8x8 has signed a teaming agreement with Level 3 Communications, establishing a framework for both companies to work together in responding to federal government solicitations for telecommunications services.

The agreement enables 8x8 and Level 3 to collaborate on government proposals for telecommunications deployments that include hosted IP telephony services. Level 3 Communications, a leading international provider of fiber-based communications services, has demonstrated increasing traction with its government business and is a prime contractor on several federal contracts.

As the H1N1 flu virus continues to surface in cities and towns across the United States, officials are encouraging businesses to examine their operations and construct a strategy for maintaining business continuity in the face of a potentially absent workforce. Bolstering telecommunications infrastructure with a hosted IP telephony solution like the 8x8 Virtual Office business phone service is one way a company can maintain its day to day operations even when employees are forced to remain home due to office closings or school shutdowns.

8x8 announces that OfficeMax is offering the 8x8/Aastra co-branded 6755i IP business phone, bundled with the 8x8 Virtual Office suite of business phone services, at approximately 400 select OfficeMax retail locations in the United States and online.

The plug-and-play 8x8/Aastra 6755i IP phone serves as an endpoint for the 8x8 Virtual Office hosted IP PBX business phone service, currently in use by over 17,000 businesses. 8x8 Virtual Office provides businesses with a complete, enterprise class phone system at a fraction of the cost of a traditional PBX and roughly half the cost of traditional business phone service. The 8x8/Aastra IP phones plug into any broadband Internet connection to allow users to immediately make or receive calls without performing any network configuration or firewall manipulation. In addition, the 8x8/Aastra IP phones deliver enhanced features including corporate directory display and lookup, extension dialing and transfers, intercom paging, shared line appearance and an embedded XML browser.

8x8 is providing voice trunking services to cloud telephony solution provider CallFire. CallFire began offering its hosted power-dialing services to small business, call center and enterprise customers over 8x8's established VoIP network last week.

The agreement between the two companies links 8x8's enterprise-class SIP trunking service together with CallFire's cloud telephony platform, currently in use by over 14,000 businesses.

8x8 provider of 8x8 Virtual Office and Packet8 broadband business, residential, video and mobile communications services, announces the availability of an enterprise version of its hosted IP PBX phone service suited for deployment in larger organizations located in either a single building, a campus environment or distributed across multiple locations.

8x8 provider of 8x8 Virtual Office and Packet8 announces that as of January 31, 2009, the business customer base for its IP telephony services exceeded 15,000 companies. Over the past two years, 8x8's business customer base has roughly tripled, with the majority of customers utilizing its flagship Virtual Office hosted PBX phone service, an IP based telecommunications solution that provides enterprise PBX features plus unlimited calling at a much lower cost than traditional PSTN services. In addition to its Virtual Office service, 8x8 also now offers hosted contact center and key system services as well as IP trunking solutions, all of which are designed to operate over existing public or private high speed Internet connections rather than managed data networks.

8x8, provider of 8x8 Virtual Office and Packet8 broadband business announces that its IP Hosted Key System business phone service received a "Best of Show Award" in the "Most Innovative Product" category at Technology Marketing Corporation's INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East 2009 which was held February 2 - 4 in Miami Beach, Florida.

8x8's Virtual Office Business Phone Service is now part of the Certified Solutions Showcase on the Intel Business Exchange, an online storefront and business solutions Web portal designed to help small and medium-sized businesses speed the identification, selection and implementation of the technology they need to run their businesses.

Packet8 has joined national efforts to relieve cash-flow burdens on small businesses by reducing monthly service charges for its Virtual Office Business Phone Service by 50% for new subscribers.

Normally priced at $49.99 per month/extension, Virtual Office hosted PBX phone service, an all inclusive Internet-based telecommunications solution which combines unlimited local and long distance calling with advanced PBX features, is now available to companies who subscribe by December 31, 2008 for a monthly fee of $24.99/extension or a one-time annual fee of $250/extension for the first year of service. New customers must purchase 8x8's new Internet protocol phones and agree to keep service for a minimum of one year in order to be eligible for the promotion.

Microsoft to offer Packet8 VoIP phone service for Microsoft's Response Point small business phone system. Bryan Martin, 8x8 Chairman & CEO, and Xuedong Huang, General Manager for Response Point at Microsoft told members of the press at the Internet Telephony Conference & Expo West 2008 in Los Angeles that too many small businesses are frustrated with their existing phone systems and that solutions like the Packet8/Response Point offering enable companies to quickly and inexpensively deploy a complete, full featured IP telephony system within their existing network infrastructure.