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netcomm plans smb voip assault NETCOMM PLANS SMB VoIP ASSAULT
Tuesday, 13 December 2005

Home grown communications and networking hardware vendor NetComm plans to roll-out a series of IP telephony products in 2006.

While most of the company’s VoIP devices have been targeted at the consumer market to date, the company’s recent technology tie up with VoIP developer Octell is positioning it to deliver more powerful devices.

First off the rank will be the announcement of a 16-port VoIP device which is scheduled for January next year.

The company has experienced good take up of its existing VoIP range including the V85 IP desktop phone which NetComm Managing Director, David Stewart, says has recently attracted the interest of an Australian University which has placed a large order for ‘hundreds’ of phones.

Stewart says the company has been quite "surprised by the take up" of the V85 integrated desktop device, which is priced at the top end of the prosumer market, but cheaper than similar devices from major VoIP phone providers such as Cisco.

Stewart said the company decided to bank on the VoIP market growth some time ago saying, “we could see that was going to be a major market, we just didn’t know when it would be”.

“We hired a number of engineers with VoIP backgrounds to help us develop a consumer range of single port devices, but once you get into multi-port devices, the processor speed needs to be higher. So rather than be home grown we have done a technology deal with Octell. We are still at the building stage, but are planning to launch devices up to 16 ports in January or February next year.”

Stewart said the company already has an order for a local provider for the devices, but was not at liberty to make any announcements. Stewart said, “the configuration depends on customer. We are working with them so they can say ‘this is what we want and this is how we want to deploy it.”

Stewart could only say that the order was form a VoIP hardware company that would use the 16port switch to deliver VoIP services to the SMB market. He described the market for the new range of devices as for people who build hardware for systems integrators, or for IPBX vendors.

“We have a firm belief that people won’t go out and throw out their existing PBX equipment. If they can add VoIP channels they will still have PSTN and will re-direct outgoing calls to those lines and still use PSTN for incoming calls.

“VoIP is not going to realistically replace PSTN [in the short term] it is a cost saving technology,” he said.

NetComm also plans to significantly expand its range of VoIP telephones, including a bundle that teams an ATA with a standard DECT phone which is about to be launched by the company.

Stewart says the ATA is a high quality device because NetComm is wary of delivering devices with lesser quality because it doesn't want to turn people off the idea of VoIP by giving them a sub-standard experience. This is the same approach the company took with its successful launch of the V85 IP telephone launched earlier this year. Stewart says the quality of the ATA 'comes at a cost' which has priced the V85 at the high end of the consumer device price bracket. Stewart describes the V85 pricing as "cheaper than Cisco, but at the top end of the consumer market".

Stewart says NetComm has looked into the Skype market and will respond with a headset device and a speakerphone product, probably in the New Year.

Then also in February or March 2006 the company plans to deliver a WiFi VoIP phone to market. Stewart explains the delay in delivering WiFi enabled devices comes down to battery life issues, but he says chip makers are designing chipsets that ease this problem and the company should be able to deliver a product that offers acceptable battery life in that timeframe.