VoIP: the state of play in New Zealand

Voice Over IP (VoIP) is probably not yet the most used way for people to call each other in New Zealand. But it will be - sooner rather than later.

I am often asked a number of questions about VoIP. What are the rates of adoption? Is the voice quality OK? Do you provide VoIP lines? Who else does?

This prompted me to put together this overview on the state of play of VoIP in New Zealand. The way I see it. No statistics or scientific method here - this is simply a report from the trenches.

Looking at the industry I split the telecommunication companies into three tiers. Telecom, TelstraClear and Vodafone are what I call first-tier telecommunication companies. The second-tier telecommunication companies are local internet service providers, now delivering phone services, such as CallPlus, Orcon, WorldXchange and Snap Internet. There are also many third-tier, smaller providers like 2Talk, Kiwi and others in the market today.

At Home

First, I will distinguish between the residential and business phone lines. The Plain, Old Telephone Service line (POTS line) is the type of line most people still use at home. Until recently this was the only option.

In the last few years some ISPs and third-tier telecommunication companies started offering a service where you could buy an IP phone and get a phone number from them. As this was not widely publicized and the set-up was quite technical, this service was only used by a few enthusiasts that knew what they were doing.


Now, with the arrival of Orcon's Genius product this home scene may change.


At Work

Now, to the business world.

Most businesses don't simply just rent a phone line. They normally use a phone system to connect to telecommunications companies phone lines and have company telephones connect to the telephone system.

VoIP is a method that can be used by the telephone to communicate with the telephone system, as well as the method that can be used by the telephone system to connect to the telecommunications network.

People often confuse the two. Lets split the two up. I will call the method of connecting telephones to the telephone system via VoIP as IP telephony; I will call the method of connecting telephone system to the telecommunications network via VoIP as VoIP phone lines.

When we talk about rates of adoption it is important to look at the two separately. IP Telephony has been steadily adopted in the enterprise since late 90's - early 2000's, while first VoIP phone lines only became available in New Zealand around 2005.

As such, the rate of adoption of IP telephony is much higher than the rate of adoption of VoIP phone lines. From my personal observations, both have now entered the mainstream business. While at home we still use POTS, at work both IP telephony and VoIP phone lines well passed the early adoption stage.

Despite this being the case, none of the first-tier telcos offer VoIP phone lines yet. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why second-tier telcos are fast gaining the market share.

One thing to say about the quality of VoIP phone lines in New Zealand is that it is excellent. New Zealanders are very much used to the best experience while using digital business phone lines. This means that in order to compete with the traditional phone lines, the second-tier telcos had to put together a service that would compete well. From my experience working with two of the major second-tier providers CallPlus and Orcon, their service is a good match to the Telecom's old ISDN service.

At Vadacom

Many people think that we provide VoIP phone lines. We don't. What we do, is develop world's best telephone system, called VadaXchange.

However, to make it work for our customers, we would partner with phone line providers do deliver a turn-key solution for business.

Our system would work in either just the IP Telephony mode, with the traditional phone lines (mostly ISDN), or it can do VoIP throughout, or a mixture.

We are amongst the most experienced in this area in New Zealand, as we started integrating VoIP phone lines back in 2005 when most other business phone system providers stayed well away from it.


So, talk to us, if you are investigating VoIP in New Zealand.

It is official:

Vadacom launches VadaXchange Buddy

Also, here is our new advertisement for Buddy, feedback welcome:

VadaXchange for iOS v2.0 has been released in the Apple App store

The long-awaited release of our VadaXchange iPhone app is finally here.

So, what's new?

1. Presence

Finally, your phone system presence is now easily changed from your iPhone:

...and you can see the presence of your peers:

In fact managing your presence is very easy with this application - the button is always there on the front screen, it is easily accessible.

2. Call Transfer

This is another big feature. You can see your call in your iPhone, either while you on the mobile call or on the desk phone call:

You can hold the call, or you can transfer it:

When transferring the call you have the choice of blind or attended transfer. You can also transfer straight to voicemail.

3. New Layout

All the same great features from v1.0, but now with a whole new layout:

It is much easier to follow as it is closer to the iPhone phone app layout. You can easily see and change your presence status. You have access to all the main features from the front screent with one tap.

I've been using this new layout for six months, and it is an absolute pleasure to use.

You will need VadaXchange Buddy to enjoy all the features of this brilliant app.

Enjoy!

Inquire today.

How mobile is your receptionist?

Does your company receptionist answers calls all day every day without leaving the desk, or is the role mixed with other tasks needed to be performed around the office?

I found that many of our customers order wireless headsets mainly for receptionist use precisely for the reason that reception task no longer means that receptionist must sit in front of the computer the whole day. Ability to answer the calls by pressing a button on a wireless headset, away from the computer, is quite valuable. However, how do you transfer the call? You couldn't until now...

VadaXchange Buddy is unique in that it is the first browser based user interface for the phone system that is built to work with touch-screen devices. This means it will work on an iPad, or an equivalent tablet device, giving your receptionist the mobility they require.

However, some of them may find the tablet too bulky. In this case, they can use the VadaXchange buddy iPhone app on an iPod Touch:

VadaXchange iOs interface places the full PABX reception switchboard into the palm of your hand. That is quite unique!

The mobile receptionists use a cordless headset connected to their desk phone in conjunction with an iPod Touch with VadaXchange iOS software installed on it. The iPod touch is connected to the phone system using the office WiFi connection.

The actual voice call uses the traditional DECT wireless method on the headset. This way the call quality is not compromised by the WiFi network.

This delivers the ultimate mobility around the office while not compromising reception call quality and features for the reception staff.

Inquire today.

Every business is a contact centre. Not every business could afford to be one. Until Now.

How does your business sell products or services? If you own a shop, probably you sell over the counter.

You have enough counters to satisfy enough people in the most demanding times, but not too many counters so it is not too expensive for you to run. So when you have more people in the shop than you have counters, you let them queue and wait to be served.

Many of my customers ask me to explain to them the concept of telephony queues and hunt groups. The explanation is simple: A hunt group is the row of counters. A queue is the place where people queue.

Hunt groups and queues are basic features of contact centre environments. The features to implement hunt groups and queues in traditional phone systems cost you extra and for many businesses are outside of their budget. Therefor traditionally many businesses have opted out of purchasing contact centre features from their telephony providers, siting that they don't need it for their business. This was the case until the arrival of software based telephone systems such as VadaXcahnge.

VadaXcahnge Buddy is the first browser based call control and instant messenger interface that is user friendly. VadaXchange Buddy enables you to have full contact centre features, where you can:

queue incoming phone calls

queue incoming instant messages
queue incoming faxes
queue incoming emails
queue any other incoming communications

Queueing communications enable you to service more people. It also enables you to measure and tune the performance of your team.

If you communicate with you clients and would like to service them more efficiently you need contact centre features. VadaXcahnge places contact centre features into the same price bracket as a regular telephone system. Further more, if you take into account the cost savings that VadaXchange offers on you running costs, you may end up not having to pay any extra to get those features at all.

Inquire today.

About time business phone system become user friendly

Businesses looking to lift their productivity and customer service require the tools necessary to achieve that. Unfortunately most telephony interfaces are complicated and cumbersome.

VadaXcahnge Buddy is the first browser based call control and instant messenger interface that is user friendly.

We spent considerable time developing this new software. I am very excited to see the first few of our customers actually using it.

With Buddy you don't need to learn how to use the phone. The call control interface is right there on the screen, guiding you through every step.

The system is easy to deploy and easy to use. Please request for one of our sales team to demonstrate this amazing new software to you and show you how it can assist your business growth.

Yahoo! connects over 8,000 employees to a distributed Asterisk PABX system

If you have any more doubts about the scalability of Asterisk PABX, here is a proof that Asterisk PABX is one of the most scalable telephone system in the world.

According to Yahoo!, it has 8,477 employees on a distributed Asterisk system today, and we'll double that before they are done deploying the system. This has been shared in a discussion here:

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=64049&type=member&item=51807149&qid=061542b2-a645-425d-896e-50d08f43c452&goback=%2Egmp_64049


And in a TMC keynote address here:

http://www.tmcnet.com/tmc/videos/default.aspx?vid=1976


I've always maintained that VadaXchange, based on Asterisk, can scale to as larger deployment as is necessary.

Well, Yahoo! deployment is the best proof.