Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
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Gerard Norsa
Tuesday, 08 May 2007 09:00
o SMEs abandoning traditional phone services in favour of VoIP
o Large carriers still trying to lock SMEs in old style serviceso VoIP is beginning to disrupt existing industry business modelsMELBOURNE, May 7, 2007 – As other carriers just begin to announce their plans to launch business-grade VoIP services this year, the “IProvide Office” converged voice, Internet and VPN solution enters its second year of full scale commercial availability to Australian SMEs.
The recent cut over of IProvide’s 2000th business grade VoIP service is a clear indication of the future of SME communications – a complete business voice, Internet and data networking solution sold through a trusted Systems Integrator or Value Added Reseller and delivered over a single broadband link into the business site.
SMEs are embracing the value proposition of combining and simplifying their voice and data networking. The immediate business benefits are savings on line rentals and usage charges along with utilising more voice (VoIP) lines and faster Internet access. The medium term business benefits centre around flexibility. This enables greater integration voice calls with IT applications and to readily add and change voice and data end points distributed across multiple business sites and remote working locations.
Mr. Phil Sykes, IProvide’s Managing Director said “The decision by an increasing number of SMEs to dispense with their traditional Key Telephone Systems (KTS) and in some cases PBXs, in favour of fully hosted telephony services, is an emerging market trend.
“This is clearly evidenced by the type of IProvide Office sales that we have experienced to date. With over 2000 business-grade VoIP lines now installed, the momentum for this trend is really starting to be borne out in sales and points to immense future market opportunities.”
An IProvide Office hosted telephony service delivers KTS / PBX features such as line hunt, call transfer, find me / follow me and much more. The features are delivered from a VoIP soft switch in the network via a broadband link to the business.
“These trends are clearly signalling unstoppable changes to the current business models of carriers and office phone system equipment vendors,” Mr. Sykes said.
Most telecommunication carriers are still focused on locking SMEs into long contracts for traditional Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS) plus a Key Telephone System for their voice communication and separate broadband service for their Internet access. This lock-in denies SMEs the flexibility they need to evolve their voice and data communications in line with changes in their business and the availability of enhanced business IT applications.
SMEs are becoming increasingly aware that the high monthly cost of business POTS line rentals plus the separate Internet monthly line fees can be significantly reduced by combining voice services and Internet access on the same broadband link.
But how do they avoid the poor quality “voice over Internet” offerings in the market?
Business grade VoIP can now be segregated from Internet traffic carried on the same broadband link. This ensures there is guaranteed bandwidth for voice which delivers a far superior quality service. Today, business-grade VoIP is delivering high quality office communications with advanced PBX-equivalent features to an increasing number of SMEs.
Office communications equipment vendors are gradually migrating to IP (Internet Protocol) based Key Telephone Systems and PBXs but according to Mr. Sykes, “they will need to work closely with IP-centric voice carriers if they are to contribute to the delivery of complete voice and data solutions for SMEs”.
“Sales and distribution models are also rapidly changing in the SME communications market,” Mr. Sykes said. “SME’s information, communications and technology needs are increasingly being serviced by Value Added Resellers and System Integrators working closely with IP-centric service providers such as IProvide.”
With over 120 partners in place across Australia, the IProvider Partner Program is continuing to lead the way in delivering sophisticated, business grade VoIP and data networking solutions to SMEs.
Gerard Norsa
Schmooze Communications
(03) 9534 9902
0427 563 442
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
