Qwest improves VoIP product suite

            Qwest first opened up OneFlex, a business VoIP service in the year 2004. According to Jeff Randolph, the president of the Illinois-based engineering consulting firm Randolph & Associates, his company has subscribed to Qwest's OneFlex service for about a year. It has provided his company with the ability to work more flexibly by allowing employees to set up dedicated VoIP lines in hotels and home offices that act as extensions to office lines. He further added that the service has helped his company save money by putting voice services over the company's T1 line.

            In a recent development, Qwest has revealed a number of new features for its OneFlex VoIP product suite. It also includes an application that allows users to compress their voice calls so as to free up more bandwidth for data transmissions.

            According to Thuy Ha, the director of product management for Qwest, "the compression feature can let users double or even triple the number of paths they have dedicated to VoIP." She added that Oneflex customers do not have to pay more for the compression feature.

            "While users will be able to compress their voice traffic to get more use out of their bandwidth," Ha adds, "they will still have to pay additional money if they want to purchase additional phone lines. Customers will only be able to take advantage of the compression feature if they have up-to-date compression-capable equipment. Customers who don't have compression-capable equipment will have to upgrade."

            Another feature has been added. It is known as the "escape to operator" feature. It allows inbound callers to have access to an operator from their voice mail in addition to Sub Office Administrator Portals that allow office administrators to outsource office management functions to employees at different office locations.