Linksys extends range with VoIP SME routers
Cisco subsidiary aims routers at European small and home users
Linksys has extended its range of products in Europe to incorporate wired and wireless broadband routers aimed specifically at the home and small-business user voice over IP (VoIP) market.
The Cisco subsidiary will also extend its US relationship with VoIP service provider Vonage to include the UK, where the two firms will begin selling bundles of Vonage's service and Linksys's hardware through retail outlets and direct from Vonage's UK site.
"At the moment we are focusing on VoIP adoption. We really want to see this integrated into wireless environments. Eventually, we see home broadband that supports data and voice evolving into Triple Play, with video as well," said Patrick Lelorieux, EMEA vice-president of sales at Linksys.
Lelorieux joined Linksys in November last year from SMC, which he joined in turn from Avaya.
"Our route to market is to attach our offering to services, either through service providers or through a boxed retail product that comes with a service in the package," he said.
Lelorieux also clarified the different customers targeted by Linksys and its owner, Cisco. Linksys, he said, sells to home users and businesses with fewer than 100 employees, while Cisco targets any business with 100 or more staff.
Linksys's contract with Vonage in the UK is not exclusive. Louis Mamakos, chief technology officer at Vonage, said his firm has inked deals with several customer premises equipment vendors in the US to increase the options available to customers.
"It is of paramount importance that the performance of what we sell is superior out of the box," said Mamakos. "That [the need to exhaustively test every piece of hardware sold for Vonage] will become less important as the industry develops more standard feature sets for VoIP equipment."
As yet, Vonage's UK business, which launched on 28 December last year, provides only numbers with the 020 London dialling code, although other geographic codes will be offered later. The service starts at £9.99 per month for home users and £18.99 per month for business users.
Mamakos added: "We are looking at the same strategy as we have used in the US: to sell direct as well as through partners and retail channels."