Getting Private Voice into public

By PETER GRIFFIN

TelstraClear says it is investing "tens of millions" of dollars in its new internet protocol (IP) telephony product, Private Voice.

It is the company's latest major pitch to businesses and one set to rival Telecom's IP Centrex.

At its heart, Private Voice uses an IP platform from United States company Broad Soft, which was also selected by Telstra as the basis for its IP offering in Australia in a different due-diligence exercise.

The service is hosted on TelstraClear's network and delivers to small and medium businesses the same kind of IP based telecoms that large corporates use.

The call management software consists of a Java-based plug-in that taps Outlook Express for its contact information and routes calls based on their caller line identification codes.

TelstraClear will publish the interface details for the local developer community so further third-party plug-ins can be produced.

Users see a web browser on their computer screens which connects to an IP handset and out to the telecoms network via an ethernet connection.

TelstraClear's Private Voice product manager, Chris Hardaker, declined to price Private Voice, which will be released to potential customers shortly.

But he said the aim of Private Voice was not to slash telecoms costs but to add more functions at the same price as a conventional phone system.

"Users should not see an increase in their bill month to month," he said.

Subscribing businesses would save money as they did not have to maintain switch infrastructure.

But TelstraClear's lack of network reach may make the service uneconomical for less central businesses who may be reached only via data circuits leased from Telecom.

"Pricing can be extremely high," Hardaker said.

Private Voice was not designed to work over fast internet digital subscriber lines but TelstraClear would eventually offer it over wireless local loops.

A voice-activated attendant known as Ava and developed by Australian company Holly is part of Private Voice.

Hosted on Sun servers in Penrose and Christchurch, Ava interprets queries from callers and routes calls accordingly, much as a receptionist would.

Messages can be left for absent contacts as WAV files and emailed to the intended recipient as an attachment.

Hardaker said that for mobile workers, the graphical interface for their phone system available at the office was available remotely through a web browser. This allowed them to re-route calls through the TelstraClear-hosted system or change their settings from wherever they were.

"You still see the [graphical user interface] at home, but you answer the call on the mobile."