Internode first to offer PSTN-like voice services on NBN

Stuart Corner
Monday, 19 September 2011 17:33

Your IT - Home IT

Internode has become the first company accredited to offer PSTN-like services over the National Broadband Network and says it plans a large scale trial of these services in the latest first release site to be connected, Willunga in South Australia.

It aims to identify how well these NBN-delivered services work in the real world in preparation for offering fixed line phone services as part of its bundled voice/data NBN offerings after NBN commercial services are launched later this year.

Internode product manager Jim Kellett said: "We already have many customers enjoying our voice over IP services across the National Broadband Network. Delivering an analogue-style phone service is the latest step along the NBN path for Internode, and means that customers will have even more choice'¦

"Internode is now taking it into the real world to see how well this service works with the range of equipment used by our customers. These will include older phone handsets and fax machines as well as monitored security systems. Customer feedback from this trial will provide Internode and NBNCo with valuable feedback."

The NBN Co in-home unit, the Network Termination Device (NTD) has two standard analogue phone ports providing a service that NBN Co calls UNI-V. However it is in reality an IP-telephony service delivered via an analogue telephony adaptor built into the NTD. The port is able to support fax up to 9.6kbps and dial up modems at up to 14.4kbps.

According to NBN Co's product specifications, the service is able to support standard PSTN features such as call waiting, calling number display, message waiting and hot line, so long as NBN Co's wholesale customer provisions these features in its IP telephony infrastructure.