Optus rolling out wholesale VOIP product

Optus has announced the release of a new wholesale VOIP (voice over internet protocol) product called ipPhone Express, which the carrier will make available to its resale customers.

The new product will be able to work with both an analogue telephone adaptor (ATA) or as a soft-phone on a PC or IP phone.

The company says the new product will allow its resellers to transfer customers from competing service providers without them having to give up their landline number, and offer VOIP as part of any service bundle.

The company promises competitive local, national, fixed to mobile and international call rates, as well as advanced business-related features including ‘hunt groups’ (where phones calls made to a single number are distributed across a number of lines) and call forwarding.

Optus Wholesale and Satellite managing director Robert Parcell says the new product takes advantage of new opportunities created by consumers migrating from copper to the NBN.

“An over-the-top cloud-based voice solution that allows resellers to transfer customers from competitors and keep their ‘all important’ landline number is a key differentiator for Optus and a very exciting proposition for our wholesale partners.

“As consumer and business confidence in VOIP continues to climb and fixed revenues stagnate, our resellers have been looking for new ways to capitalise on this trend, capture new customers and claim a competitive advantage.

“Optus ipPhone Express allows them to do that. It delivers a new revenue stream for new customers with the added advantage of being backed by Optus service and support teams. This means resellers can be assured their customers will receive the highest quality of care when needed – a stark differentiator from other free and global VoIP providers in the market.

“We also anticipate strong interest in this product as resellers begin to explore the new opportunities an NBN world will offer. As their customers’ migrate from traditional copper-based phone lines to an NBN connection, a wealth of opportunity unfolds.”