The fear associated with the economic recession has not waned, as evidenced by a recent survey that indicated that small to medium size businesses (SMBs) are continuing to plan for future growth but are intensely aware of the need to reduce costs anywhere possible.

One such avenue to accomplish that is through retail or wholesale VoIP.

According to a recent survey conducted by VoIP telephone and cloud communications provider 8x8 (News - Alert), the potential to save money is one of the main drivers for turning to VoIP services. The 8x8 survey randomly polled new 8x8 customers who subscribed to the company's VoIP service between May 1 and Aug.19. About half of all respondents said they had switched to 8x8 from their local phone company since they were looking to reduce expenses. 

When asked about the driving factors influencing SMBs decisions to implement 8x8 VoIP phone service in their business, 62 percent indicated overall cost savings while 70 percent specified features. Forty-three percent cited portability and geographic flexibility and 37 percent noted the convenience of having 8x8 host and maintain the service.

"It appears that overall economic conditions may be influencing businesses to look at alternative services such as those 8x8 offers and, in the process of doing so, they are also becoming appreciative of the inherent features and advantages that promote business agility, accessibility and growth," 8x8 Chairman and CEO Bryan Martin (News - Alert) said.

In related industry news, nationwide wholesale VoIP provider Alcazar Networks spread the word this summer that there is finally a low-cost local termination option for VoIP calls, thanks to Alcazar Networks.

Alcazar Networks has expanded its resume of services to now include wholesale local termination (outbound), an offering that promises to provider carriers with substantial cost savings as customers can terminate calls locally at roughly 50 percent of standard intrastate charges. Traffic may be originated anywhere, then handed to Alcazar Networks over a SIP handoff (dedicated facility or public Internet).

Alcazar Networks first began product testing about eight months ago and is now excited about shedding light on its latest offering.

“We continue to leverage our network, and partners to make sure every product to the customer benefits their bottom line in these markets,” Alcazar Networks’ President Gavin Grabias told TMCnet in a recent interview. “We currently are only terminating to Verizon (News - Alert) endpoints, however this will expand as our team is done analyzing the impact of terminating to other carriers in the area.”