ITWire

In this year's ACOMMS Awards, Symbio Networks has been shortlisted in the 'Partnership for Growth' category in conjunction with Australian Private Networks (APN), and in its own right in the 'Innovation / Small to Medium Sized Enterprises' category.

The company's association with APN provides remote communities with free-standing, solar powered phone booths that allow free standard calls. Phone cards can be used to make calls to mobile, international or premium numbers.

The deployment is part of Department of Communications, Broadband and the Digital Economy’s Indigenous Communications Program that will serve up to 300 communities. More than 200 phones have already been installed in Cape York Peninsula, the Northern Territory, north of Broome, the Kimberley, islands off Arnhem Land and north of Darwin, and South Australiay.

"Thanks to the partnership with Symbio, our phone booths have become a valuable communications service to people living in these isolated spots. The booths allow people to stay in touch with family and friends, but also get help when they are injured or ill," said Robert Gallesio, director and CTO of Australian Private Networks. "In some communities the new phone has become a regular meeting place where the whole community gathers together and calls their neighbouring communities for 'group catch-ups' that are helping these remote areas feel less isolated."

Symbio's nomination for the 'Innovation / Small to Medium Sized Enterprises' was for its introduction of a local number portability (LNP) for smaller carriers. The LNP arrangements were basically set up to allow portability between the two big carriers (Telstra and Optus) and the complexity and expense made it difficult for smaller players to participate.

The introduction of Symbio's LNP feature in 2010 opened it up to a much wider range of providers, overcoming one of the barriers to the more widespread adoption of VoIP. This is especially important now the NBN rollout has begun, as it will allow consumers and businesses to drop their copper landlines and switch to VoIP while keeping their existing numbers.

Company officials said more than 65,000 numbers have already been ported.

Rene Sugo, CEO of the MyNetFone Group said "We believe in locally developed industry innovation, as exemplified by our partnership with APN and our Number Porting initiative. We're proud and honoured to be shortlisted by ACOMM in two important award categories. This recognition is testament to our Australian R&D facilities' ability to provide us with a competitive advantage in the communications market."