Net2Phone in Major Distribution Alliance

Voice-over-IP start-up Net2Phone is poised to offer a broad range of products to enterprise clients around the globe now that it has signed a distribution deal with telephony and hardware products maker MacroVoice Networks.

The arrangement means that 4,000 resellers of MacroVoice products will also pitch Net2Phone’s business lines among their offerings.

The distribution alliance, which spans 42 countries, certainly helps Net2Phone juice up its push in the business-to-business market, where it is looking to entice customers to upgrade their systems with VoIP features such as remote-dial-in, call-forwarding and real-time account management.

TheNet2Phone products that MacroVoice resellers would tout include a single-port IP Phone that allows up to 16 simultaneous calls, and the Max T-1/E-1 which provides up to 24/30 simultaneous calls. The “Business Connections” products are a mix of hardware, software and services that can work with existing analog devices or in conjunction with PBX or digital telephone systems in corporate enterprise systems.

Net2Phone is a dominant player in the PC-to-phone market, handling about 72 percent of the traffic. As it moves away from its formerly free PC-to-phone offerings in the consumer market, it is also in the hunt for distribution deals that help bring in more stable business-to-business revenues. The deal with MacroVoice looks like a win for both companies in that regard a distribution network that Net2Phone lacks and needs, and next-generation products that help beef up MacroVoice’s products.

The Boca Raton, Fla-based MacroVoice Networks has been a well-known player in providing voice mail and messaging systems to enterprise customers for the past 12 years and is migrating that business to IP and Web-based telecommunications services.

Among its new product offerings is an IP-PBX hybrid that combines voice and data switching equipment of a corporate network on one system, which dovetails with some of Net2Phone’s products.