Forrester's 2008 Outlook On US Enterprise-Class Landline Service Prices

In 2008, clients will find it possible to obtain lower prices on some services, such as Ethernet and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), but only if they do their fair share of due diligence. Customers with heavy intrastate calling volumes may find it possible to save on these particular public switched telephone network (PSTN) services as well. However, obtaining the best price can come with risk, even when only considering the pool of facilities-based tier one providers. In most cases, we recommend that enterprises resist the temptation to obtain potential incremental savings by bundling both primary voice and data services with a single facilities-based provider, especially if they intend to use legacy PSTN services to support most voice calls during the next contract cycle. It's entirely possible that the benefits of any incremental short-term savings derived from such an approach will be outweighed by the lack of future sourcing flexibility, so enterprises should consider tradeoffs carefully. In some cases, current and pending provider and client realities may lead an organization to consider a new provider model, such as moving to a managed services approach.