ISP Internode has launched its NodePhone Business Trunks service aimed at businesses VoIP telephone services.
Internode claims NodePhone business offers more flexibility and costs less than traditional ISDN OnRamp services for the SMB market.
NodePhone business costs from $25 a month for a range of 100 phone numbers and works with IP-enabled PABX systems – from the open source Asterisk to enterprise systems like Cisco Call Manager.
Internode product manager Philip Dempster said NodePhone Business Trunks evolved from customer demand for a multi-channel VoIP service.
“Customers were asking us for access to the service that Internode has used internally for several years,” Dempster said.
“During the past year, we have worked with a number of customers to design a product that meets the needs of businesses which require a cost-effective and flexible telephone service.”
Carbon Planet, an Australian company that works with businesses around the world to quantify risks and explore opportunities emerging from carbon legislation, has used the service since last year as part of Internode’s product development.
With six offices and 60 employees nationally, Carbon Planet “took a plunge at the start, but it has paid off”, according to founder and executive director David Sag.
“As a rapidly growing company, we wanted a telephone system that was flexible enough to cope with our evolving needs,” Sag said. “The system lets us register our direct dial number on any handset in our offices so that all incoming calls to that number will come to that handset.”
“NodePhone provides much lower call costs. We get free phone calls between our offices in Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Melbourne and un-timed national calls cost just 18 cents.”
“It also offers (QoS) management to guarantee call quality. The integration of NodePhone with our data network means I can take a call on my laptop and transfer it to the office, even when I’m on the road. It also offers many future benefits as we integrate the service with our CRM and ticket-tracking systems.”
The service is available within local call zones for Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
In addition to an IP-PABX phone system, customers require broadband with symmetrical bandwidth of at least 100Kbps for each channel.
NodePhone Business Trunks starts with two channels, allowing two concurrent phone conversations and an online portal allows customers to increase the number of channels.
Each service has a 100 number range, with increases in multiples of 100. Each 100-number in-dial range has a setup fee of $50 and a monthly fee of $25. Each channel costs $50 to setup and $10 per month to maintain.
NodePhone service plans cost from $5 per month which include $10 of call credits.