More United Kigndom IP Communications Stories
April 28, 2010
TMCnet Contributor
UK-based Internet telephony service provider Spitfire Network Services announced the launch of its hosted PBX Web site. The Web site is dedicated to help small to medium sized businesses or “SMBs” ask the right questions when choosing a hosted VoIP PBX (News - Alert) provider.
Spitfire Network officials say many people believe hosted VoIP means Internet-based voice services managed by a service provider. While this is a form of VoIP, most providers do not manage the circuits or routers which carry the calls into the customer's premises. In this case, they can’t guarantee call quality and the customer can risk experiencing dropped or 'choppy' calls.
Spitfire's hosted PBX solution, according to company officials, is a realistic alternative to an on-site installation. By installing non-Internet voice optimized broadband circuits, the hosted PBX solution ensures consistently high call quality that users require from a business phone system.
”UK businesses no longer need to play Russian roulette when making a call with a hosted VoIP PBX service,” Nick Goodenough, Spitfire's partner services manager, said. “We meet a lot of people whose use of Internet VoIP has been detrimental to their business.”
Goodenough says that some competing providers over promise the number of concurrent calls the customer's Internet circuit can realistically handle.
“Spitfire installs inexpensive dedicated voice broadband circuits which do not provide Internet access and which guarantee high quality on every call,” Goodenough added.
The company uses Openreach to deliver the 'last mile' of a circuit to a customer's premises. Openreach, BT (News - Alert)'s wholesale infrastructure arm, announced that starting from Autumn 2010 to 2011 there will be 303 exchanges which will support fiber-to-the-cabinet or “FTTC,” offering download speeds up to 40 Mbps and up to 10 Mbps upload which has the potential to deliver up to 40 concurrent calls on one circuit.
In addition, Spitfire's FTTC circuit product is called VDSL which is expected to support business VoIP calls later in 2010, the company said.
Earlier this year, Spitfire announced it has completed interoperability testing with 3CX and agreed to promote 3CX to Spitfire’s 200 strong partner channel. Spitfire has become a 3CX Supported SIP Trunk provider, with Spitfire SIP Trunk configuration built into the latest release of 3CX software, and support for Spitfire SIP Trunks being available from 3CX’s global technical support center, the company said.
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi