GlowPoint Launches Low-Bandwidth Service Offering

Videoconferencing service provider GlowPoint this week is launching a new low-bandwidth service aimed at small businesses and branch offices.

With the new offering, GlowPoint now provides two classes of service over its global IP network: Business Solutions at speeds of 384 Kbps and higher for enterprise customers, and the new Individual Video Access (IVA) service at 256 Kbps for telecommuters, small and home offices and other users that require one-to-one videoconferencing.

>> Solution providers that sell the service act as agents and receive a chunk of the monthly fee.

IVA delivers the same quality of service as GlowPoint's high-end offering but at a lower picture quality and a lower price point, making it more attractive to businesses that otherwise could not afford videoconferencing, said Mike Brandofino, CTO and executive vice president at GlowPoint, Hillside, N.J.

"Some of these customers aren't even close to doing convergence on their own networks, and even some of the larger customers might not [be able to] afford to do so at their smaller offices," Brandofino said.

To help sell the new service, GlowPoint signed on distributor ReView Video, which will begin packaging the service with the Sony PCS-11 videoconferencing end point for $240 per month and will later add a bundle with Polycom's V500 end point. The end points sold separately start at $4,195 and $1,999, respectively. GlowPoint plans to add other distribution partners and expects to offer a bundle with Tandberg equipment through distribution in the near future, said Stuart Gold, vice president of brand and product marketing at GlowPoint.

The hardware/service bundle "certainly simplifies things," said Todd Luttinger, president of Videré Conferencing, a Quincy, Mass., solution provider that focuses on the conferencing market. "It's not too dissimilar from the cell phone model. Less invoices, less fingers to point and less decisions to make are all more attractive to customers."

The new service could help expand Videré's small-business customer base and create new opportunities within larger customers, Luttinger said.

"We're talking to a couple of large law firms about the potential. They've got some small, remote offices that might not even have warranted videoconferencing before," Luttinger said.

Solution providers that sell GlowPoint's service act as agents and receive a chunk of the monthly fee, creating a recurring revenue stream. Agents can expect to earn up to 15 percent of the monthly fee, depending on volume Brandofino said.