People Telecom buys ValueNet’s assets and 40 customers

John Stanton, People Telecom CEO said the purchase catapults the telco to the forefront of the growing trend, allowing small to medium enterprises (SME’s) and large corporations in Australia to take advantage of moving to a converged and fully hosted solution for their business voice, Internet data and internal VPN requirements.

According to Stanton, the ValueNet solution operates in around 40 enterprises across Australia and provides a range of services including enhanced voicemail, virtual receptionist capability, advanced conferencing, in-built security, firewall protection and disaster recovery.

“Customers can avoid the costs of owning their own PABX and enjoy guaranteed quality of service on their communications network,” he said. “The ValueNet solution operates on a Genband M6 platform and uses Cisco-based core network, with redundant Points of Presence (POP) in Sydney and Melbourne.”

Key members of ValueNet’s commercial and technical team will be kept on. People Telecom will also continue the partnership with existing ValueNet distributors who market the product to businesses around Australia, while looking to further strengthen ValueNet’s distribution channel, claimed Stanton.

“Along with the hosted solution, plans are also underway for additional services that the Genband platform can support. These include trunking solutions to provide a competitive alternative to the existing ‘direct connect’ offerings in the Australian market, as well as virtual key systems and IP-based 4-32 line solution for small businesses,” he said.

The ValueNet announcement comes off the back of People Telecom’s latest upgrades including the addition of Redback Networks’ Ethernet-based aggregation equipment in People Telecom’s POPs and the upgrade of associated IBM server software.