Recently Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC (News - Alert), interviewed DoubleHorn Communication’s CEO Tab Schadt, whose Austin-based company provides managed services for broadband, VoIP and business applications to SMBs.

The company started out focusing on the Texas market, but has recently expanded its field nationwide. “We found that the hosted Voice over IP product was ready to go nationwide about 18 months ago. We have a strong focus on customer service, so we were a little bit reluctant to launch on a national basis if we couldn’t get to the end user quickly.”

According to TMC’s Carrie Schmelkin, earlier this month Schadt said that the company decided about a year ago that “we were going to enter the wholesale market but we wanted to do that very slowly and methodically and really use all of the knowledge that we had from delivering downstream to the end user, which we believe is the hardest thing to do.”

Schadt talked to Tehrani about a tradeoff companies such as his have to consider when making such a move: While the partner channel is obviously valuable, there’s really no substitute for you as the ultimate vendor being able to interact personally with the end user. So the company has decided to offer VoIP nationwide, and keep managed broadband close to home in the DASH market -- Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston.

The FCC (News - Alert) has recently released a report finding that a surprisingly small percentage of SMBs have switched over to VoIP, Tehrani remarked that it’s probably in the five percent range. “It’s very low,” Schadt agreed, saying that while it’s on the uptick, “once they switch over they usually don’t go back.” In his view, what will spread VoIP is what spreads new technology in pretty much any field -- good old word of mouth. Once that happens, it will take off Schadt believes.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.