"The West Australian", IT Section, p.40Tuesday September 28th,...

"The West Australian", IT Section, p.40
Tuesday September 28th, 2004


People Telecom first to launch VoIP in Perth

Telephony and IP services provider People Telecom will this week the first company to launch voice-over-internet protocol service in Perth, three months after its merger with Perth-born ISP Swiftel.

The company will initially target its 9000 DSL customers in Perth, although plans to offer a business-grade product are being developed in conjunction with US-based network systems giant Cisco Systems.

People Telecom claims its VoIP system will reduce an average user's phone costs by between 25 and 30 per cent. But phone calls, even to the Eastern States, between People Tele- cow customers will bee free bemuse there would be no need to connect to Telstra's PSTN network.

Data services director and former Swiftel chief executive Chris Gale said the company was testing the concept and had not made any allowances in its budgets for earnings from VoIP customers.

The service was launched in Sydney earlier this month. It was expected to be introduced in Melbourne from early next year and Brisbane in the second half of 2005.

Mr Gale said that while the concept of VoIP had been around for a number of years, and many people were still uncertain how it worked, its success was inevitable. He pointed to the rapid consumer take-up of internet connections m the past two years.

“People are starting to look at this fast broadband product, and they’ll be more willing to try other concepts, but it’s going to take a while to really ramp up,” Mr Gale said.

Last week’s news that wholesaler ISP Comindico had been placed into administration was unfortunate and disappointing, but did not reflect the status of the industry in general.

Instead, the recent shift in focus away from price discounting and towards VoIP serviced by the world’s largest telco, US-based AT & T, more accurately reflected the likely future of telephony in Australia.

At present, Australia’s biggest telco, Telstra, has a 75 per cent share of the retail market for basic telephone services and draws about 40% of its revenue from fixed-line phone services. But ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said last week that new technologies like VoIP had the potential to undermine Telstra’s hold on the market. Telstra has flagged its own plans to roll out VoIP technology, saying services to residential customers would begin next year.

Mr Gale said VoIP would be a key catalyst for People Telecom’s growth.

There would be a clear differentiation between the retail and business VoIP services. Retail customers would rent an IP handset for $5.50 per month and need only plug it into a computer’s DSL modem, although People Telecom was considering creating a management centre where PABX hardware would be controlled, removing the need for businesses to have their own such system.