ADTRAN’s new VoIP channel ecosystem

Huntsville, Ala.-based ADTRAN (NASDAQ: ADTN) announced the ADTRAN Alliance Program at VoiceCon today to help integrators and small business customers connect the components of a small business voice system.

The fact that the alliance is necessary shows how difficult it still is to deploy a complete small business IP phone system. that integrates components from multiple vendors because, in spite of the existence of open standards, it can, in practice, be difficult to get the components to work well together.

Yesteday, InternetNews.com reported that VoiceCon founder Fred Knight is an advocate of interoperability, but that the industry has failed to fully deliver it. “You can run into trouble with systems from a different vendor, or systems from the same vendor running different software releases,” Knight said. “We have always been hammering on the issue of interoperability.”

ADTRAN’s alliance helps integrators navigate these issues through the relationships that it delivers. The company delivers agreements with SIP trunking providers and combines that with certified equipment delivered by its IP telephony technology service provider partners.

“We’re taking the guesswork out of multi-vendor end-to-end solutions,” said Ron Wicks, ADTRAN marketing manager for IP telephony products. “We help channel partners become a single point of contact for their end user customers. As they add more value, they become more strategic to their customers.”

The news comes as companies not traditionally associated with voice are moving into the IP telephony business. Earlier this month, Google announced a mobile phone service for its Grand Central Customers. Soon after, eBay’s Skype VoIP service announced its SIP for Business IP PBX integration, and predicted that Skype revenues would top $1 billion worldwide by 2011.