Viper Networks to strike Australian VoIP market

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 15 October 2009 04:33

IT Industry - Strategy

US based VoIP service provider, Viper Networks has announced its entry into the Australian market in conjunction with its Indian partner, Cirilium India Pvt Ltd.

Viper says it intends to "provide a full spectrum of national and international telecommunication services from Australia," and to complete deployment of the network by the end of November.

Viper says that it and Cirilium have begun deployment of a redundant telecommunications network between Australia and India, after signing a contract with Asia Pacific infocomm service provider, Globalcom Information Services (GIS), a Singapore based company specialising in network engineering, computer telephony integration (CTI) technologies and business process consultancy. Viper has just launched operations in Singapore through GIS

Viper Networks' president, Farid Shouekani, said: "As part of our joint venture with Cirilium and recently awarded Indian telecom license, this network deployment is an integral part of our significant revenue growth plans. The Australian network will allow us to maximise our potential in terms of cost, coverage, sales and enhanced services throughout this sizable market."

He added "We are close to announcing the finalisation details of the pending acquisition merger with our joint venture partner Cirilium India, which should begin to illuminate the strength of Viper Networks emerging position within the global telecommunications market."

Viper Networks, founded in 2000, claims to operate a network of VoIP gateways servers in more than 350 countries and regions and to provide VoIP services to domestic and international long distance consumers in both the consumer and business markets. It provides its services through distributors and resellers around the world.  It was included in a list of VoIP operators compiled in late 2007 and published by the ACMA in April 2008.

In March of 2009, the company signed a five-year joint venture agreement with Cirilium India for pre-paid international calling cards for retail inbound international traffic, saying it would target the roughly 50,000,000 Indian expatriate community and a floating population of Indian tourists outside India. The card will enable users to call from any landline, mobile, PC or any VoIP enabled device from countries where it is proposed to be launched. These were listed as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain to be followed by Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Two days prior to announcing its Australian plans Viper announced a $US10 million investment in its joint venture with Cirilium from an un-named private equity firm based in Saudi Arabia, with an option for an additional $US5 million. It sais the money would be used for equipment, expanding routes and for working capital.

iTWire was unable to obtain further information on the company's Australian plans but will update this article if or when we are able to get a response from Viper.