Cisco may be preparing its consumer video-conferencing announcement for next week, but little Vidtel Inc. , a privately owned company, is actually in that market today.

Vidtel is combining two hot topics -- cloud-based services and telepresence -- into one service offering that can use any vendors' videoconferencing endpoints. And while Vidtel has largely flown under the radar to date, the company believes it is poised for a breakout year as it looks for service provider partners.

The company launched in 2008 and was considered more of a consumer play, but of late has been targeting business video users who can't afford high-end telepresence services and equipment, and working with channel partners to sell the system. CEO Scott Wharton, who's probably best known for his nine years as VP marketing for BroadSoft Inc. , thinks his company is poised for a video service explosion.

"We are working with lots of channel partners, but we'd like to expand," says Wharton. "We've spent a lot of time hardening the network and getting it ready to grow. We've built things out slowly but methodically to do things in a carrier-grade way. We think we can be part of the process when video explodes."

Vidtel is selling a hosted video conferencing service, the Vitel Multipoint (Meet Me) Video Conferencing Service, that lets any subscribing business reach any other subscribing business, using whatever video equipment endpoints they have, regardless of the vendor and type. That includes everything from a PC-based videocam to a high-end telepresence unit.

Vidtel provides the video infrastructure, including servers and bridging, and the interoperability across different vendor gear, for point-to-point service, which it offers for a basic monthly fee of $40, and multipoint conferencing, which it bills on a per-minute basis.

Either service solves key problems for small and mid-sized businesses that want to use videoconferencing, Wharton says. First, they don't have to invest in expensive server infrastructure, making the startup much faster, and second, they can use video communications both inside and outside their company, since Vidtel enables interoperability among different vendor gear.

"Today, there are proprietary video islands -- some Polycom, some Tandberg, some Lifesize -- and then you've got Google and Skype," says Marriette Johnson Wharton, vice president of marketing. "Today, we can support 90 percent of the standard SIP-based end points, we've built a gateway for Skype, and we are working on an Android app as well."

Vidtel provides its subscribers with standard IP addresses that they can use to connect with other businesses. Calls can be on-demand, Johnson Wharton says, and the system is designed for easy set-up. And Vidtel handles issues with corporate firewalls, while enabling security of the service outside the firewall.

Like other videoconferencing services, Vidtel's can be used to reduce business travel by holding face-to-face meetings but also is being used by doctors' offices, organizations with widely distributed staff, and branch offices needed to stay in touch with headquarters, says Scott Wharton.

If the consumer market takes off, with some help from Cisco, the CEO believes Vidtel will be able to help service provider partners get into the market faster, and take advantage of the broadband networks they have built, particularly fiber to the home. He says Vidtel has two service provider partners and is talking to many more.

Vidtel is keeping its funding quiet for the time being, and Wharton will only say that he has "angel" investors who have stayed with the company through a few funding rounds, the size of which he doesn't disclose.

But he insists Vidtel is ready to grow rapidly and scale its technology to deliver mass-market services, competing even with a giant like Cisco.

— Carol Wilson, Chief Editor, Events, Light Reading