PAETEC Targeting Financial Industry

PAETEC Communications Inc. announced this week teaming up with Mitel, a Canada-based telecom equipment supplier, to sell IP phone systems to equity firms, hedge funds and other members of the financial industry requiring trading capabilities.

In addition to cutting costs for the financial industry, the communications systems will eliminate the need to store shelves upon shelves of equipment and will provide always-on redundant capabilities that will come in handy in the event of a network outage, says Bill Wagner, vice president of technology for PAETEC Financial Markets.

That means, for example, a trader whose system goes down in Manhattan can communicate at his New Jersey office without any delays, Wagner says.

A conferencing and collaboration solution also is part of the communications system, which will run over PAETEC’s network.

Wagner says the IP telephone sets will probably cost around $2,000 per seat. He says that is far less than the price of traditional TDM phone systems, which cost $7,000 to $10,000 per seat.

The systems also should eliminate space requirements for Wall Street firms. Wagner says a financial client with 500 traders typically stores dozens of cabinets with communications infrastructure. In comparison, he says a piece of equipment offered by Mitel called the Navigator provides the same functionality in a piece of a hardware that is the size of a pizza box.

The hardware can be either located on the customer’s premises or hosted. PAETEC of Fairport, N.Y., is hosting the equipment at a facility in New York.