Midco launches Hosted Phone service

BY KAYLA PRASEK

Midco Business has launched Hosted Phone, a service increasing mobility and flexibility for small to medium-sized businesses.

Hosted Phone lives on Midco’s 100 percent private Northern Plains Network, making it more secure than solutions that use the public internet. All Hosted Phone equipment and service is maintained by Midco at one of its data centers, meaning businesses don’t need to make big capital expenditures on a phone system or have in-house or third-party IT staff, according to Scott Smidt, vice president of business engineering and operations.

To set up Hosted Phone service for a company, Midco provides connectivity at the site through a cable modem or fiber and deploys phones to the employees’ desktops that look and feel like regular phones.

Businesses can also customize Hosted Phone to fit their needs, selecting from more than 25 features, including conference calling, an auto attendant and a softphone that turns computers and mobile phones into their own business phone connection. Midco also offers a Hosted Phone app that users can download to their smartphones to answer work calls without giving out their personal cell phone numbers.

“You can’t take your desktop with you, until now,” Smidt says. “You can take calls from your cell phone, and no one will know where you are. It also provides a smooth transition back to your desk as people only have to call that one private line.”

Midco launched Hosted Phone in the Sioux Falls area in July and will expand availability across its footprint in early 2017. PB

Kayla Prasek Staff Writer, Prairie Business 701.780.1187 kprasek@prairiebusinessmagazine.com