NZ's Research Network abandons fixed phones for iPhones

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 21 July 2010 17:11

Business IT - Networking

REANNZ, the Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand, has abandoned fixed phones, given all 15 staff iPhones and signed a deal with Vodafone NZ covering all its internal telecommunications services.

It says the deal "combines a number of innovative services to allow REANNZ to become a fully mobile operation, thus reducing costs, eliminating fixed infrastructure and services (including PBX and fixed lines) and providing a business continuity plan for disaster recovery."

REANNZ CEO Donald Clark said that being able to reduce costs and increase functionality was a key benefit to the relationship. "For most of us, our mobile has become our primary communications device. It doesn't make sense to go on paying for a bunch of fixed lines that we weren't using much."

He added: "All of our major corporate applications are in the cloud, so this move is also the last piece of our corporate disaster recovery plan. REANNZ staff can work from anywhere there is Internet connectivity (WiFi or 3G) just as if they are in the office.

"Another benefit is that we're moving office in a month and this solution allows us to pick up and move without having to physically relocate any of our telephony services. This will save us time, money and hassle. The same applies in a disaster recovery scenario."

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