Call Plus bypasses loop

By RICHARD WOOD

Telecommunications company Call Plus is offering internet protocol-based (IP) telephony to central Hamilton businesses, bypassing Telecom's local loop connections.

Last September Call Plus won exclusive rights to send data and voice over the Hamilton City Council Crime Prevention Trust network - a fibre optic network that covers most businesses in the Hamilton CBD and is used for video surveillance.

Using the network Call Plus can provide fax, phone, and internet access in one IP-based service direct into business customers. IP is the technology used to send information across the internet.

Call Plus general manager Steve Mills said the pricing was similar to Telecom's, sometimes cheaper. However, he acknowledged it was difficult to compare because Telecom charged for individual lines where Call Plus charged per phone and for the bandwidth, which was the throughput capacity required in total by the business.

Call Plus offered similar services in Auckland through Vector subsidiary Tangent's fibre optic network which covered 800 businesses in the CBD and was being extended down Great South Road and into East Tamaki.

Mills said there was huge potential around New Zealand for using fibre networks owned by utilities.

"A lot of the power companies have laid fibre just because they have open trenches and a lot of them don't necessarily have any definite plans on what to do with it all."