Making money out of VoIP
While VoIP is a hot technology at the moment how does the average reseller wrap value-add services around the hardware?
Cameron Rangeley, Turnstone Technologies sales manager, says the biggest issue with VoIP is that no matter which vendor's product is sold resellers need to have a network provider to connect the system to.
"Until now we've had a choice of Telecom or TelstraClear and both have a similar offering. The problem with that is you still need to purchase BRI or PRI lines to connect the VoIP system to the public telephone network," he says.
This, says Rangeley, still incurs high toll charges and requires an additional network connection to the corporate WAN for data access. He believes the data circuit running into a client's building should be carrying all the call traffic to the specialist network provider effectively eliminating any additional ISDN lines.
Rangeley says his company provides data circuits to a customer's premises and VoIP termination equipment in its data centers, removing the need for installation of analogue lines.
"Simply put, Turnstone's network is installed to the client and partners resell and configure the hardware.
Rangeley admits many people are still concerned about the quality and reliability of VoIP but he believes the proof of the pudding is in the eating. "I invite anyone to phone me and test out the quality. We manage audio quality with very strict quality of service policies that are applied to all routers in the network.
"As clients are becoming more aware of VoIP technology Rangeley says it's important for resellers to know the facts about the solution they're recommending – whether the solution encompasses analogue phone lines or is a true VoIP solution.
