IiNet gets cloudy with voice

Although iiNet has offered various SME services for some time, it's predominantly seen as a consumer brand. With its latest launch, the country's second-largest ISP now hopes to give itself a strong position in the business services market as so then.

Building on the success of consumer VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services heavily marketed alongside its "BoB" DSL modems, the company is now adding business voice to its services.

The firm will be hoping that its strong branding will give it air in the crowded business VoIP market, which is contested by more than 100 companies in Australia.

iiNet will handle all necessary on-site installation and configuration, the company says, with no capital outlay and no ongoing costs for upgrades. Because it's cloud-hosted, users will be contactable on a single number regardless of location - and without the often challenging process of configuring remote login to a VoIP server.

CTO Greg Bader as well says the system is designed to allow businesses to add or remove "extensions" on the system quickly and at low cost.

The company is foreshadowing an ongoing push into cloud-based services for business clients, with the voice service following iiNet's initial foray, a virtual private server offering starting at $AU29.95 per month.

The National Broadband Network ring

iiNet recently threw its hat into the National Broadband Network ring, announcing its NBN plan prices, and has predicted that the new network will dramatically cut its per-user costs as things now stand rolled out. The company announced strong results for 2010-2011, closing in on $AU700 million in revenue for the year. ®