MegaPath has expanded the availability of “Duet,” its low-cost high-speed Internet and full-featured phone service bundle for small-to-medium sized businesses, throughout the Northeast as the first step in a nationwide rollout. Duet is up to 50% less than comparable services and can be easily purchased and installed with no upfront costs. With the addition of Duet, MegaPath’s complete line of managed voice, Internet access and security services enable customers to significantly lower communications costs at headquarters, branch offices and retail locations, while increasing employee productivity.

With Duet, MegaPath is providing business-class T1 or SDSL Internet access and full-featured telephone service starting at $99 per month for two phone lines and as low as $37 per line for up to 16 lines with unlimited inbound, local and long-distance calling in select markets nationwide. This is up to 50% less than traditional phone companies charge for similar telephone and Internet services.

“Our latest research shows that many small-to-medium size businesses are considering migrating to VoIP over the next few years,” said Matthias Machowinski, Directing Analyst, Enterprise Voice and Data at Infonetics. “In order for them to consider Voice over IP services, service offerings need to have low (or no) up-front costs. Yet many VoIP offerings do require significant investments, which offset potential savings. By eliminating this requirement, MegaPath’s managed voice, data and security services remove a major barrier for customers planning to migrate to VoIP.”

“As one of the premier IT staffing firms in the Washington, DC-area, EDGE Professional Services leverages MegaPath’s Duet to deliver unlimited, high-performance and reliable Internet and phone service,” said Robert Chamberlin, Director of Operations at EDGE Professional Services. “As a staffing company, we are extremely demanding with our voice and data communications – all of our employees are constantly on the phone and Internet concurrently. Yet since implementing Duet more than two years ago, we have been able to reduce communication costs with absolutely no impact on uptime or voice quality.

MegaPath has made it incredibly easy to switch to Duet. Customers can keep using their existing phones and phone numbers, so there is no user training required. In fact, users are not even aware that the change has taken place. Plus, there is no equipment to purchase, and for a limited time, MegaPath is offering to waive all upfront fees with a two-year service agreement – so customers can begin saving immediately.

“As a leading provider of managed IP services for businesses nationwide, MegaPath is very focused on delivering high-value services for our customers, and with the expansion of the Duet service we are enabling companies to realize the cost savings of deploying VoIP,” said Jim Cragg, President and Chief Operating Officer at MegaPath. “At 50 percent less than comparable services and with zero upfront costs, Duet can significantly lower our customers’ telecom expenses. And, if they take advantage of MegaPath’s additional IP services, like managed security, they can gain even greater operating efficiencies.”

As a managed service, MegaPath installs all of the necessary equipment and performs any required maintenance or upgrades for as long as the customer subscribes to the service. MegaPath also proactively monitors the customer circuits from its redundant Network Operations Centers. In the event of an outage, MegaPath proactively alerts the customer and immediately begins trouble-shooting the issue to ensure quick resolution and restoration of services.

Previously, Duet was only available to customers in the New York and Washington DC metropolitan areas. Presently, MegaPath has expanded the service to over 200 rate centers throughout the Northeastern United States, including the major cities in CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA and VT. In addition, MegaPath plans to launch the service in numerous other markets nationwide throughout the remainder of the year.

Duet enables small-to-medium sized businesses to enjoy similar productivity enhancing features found in enterprise VoIP solutions, without the staffing requirements or investment in network and telephony equipment needed to deploy their own VoIP infrastructure. They also do not face the deployment risks and delays typically associated with sourcing, testing/and selecting equipment or integrating Internet and security services into their VoIP architectures. Instead, Duet offers them a seamlessly integrated, turnkey phone and Internet solution that is fully managed and easy to use.

Features & Optional Services:

Duet supports analog phones or Key Systems and includes the following features: Voice Mail, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding-Always, Call Forwarding-Busy, Call Forwarding-No Answer, Call Transfer, *69, *66, and Hunt Group.