Totalfone spins off wholesale VoIP business

Retail internet telephony specialist Totalfone has spun off a new wholesale VoIP provider to target ISPs and voice resellers with a managed service.

Elizabeth Cascun-Valencic, former boss of Totalfone and managing director of the spinoff wholesaler, VNO, said year-old Totalfone had discovered the market was crying out for VoIP wholesale expertise so she decided to start a new company to address that need.

"With Totalfone, it was getting complicated to compete against engin and Freshtel and things like that. We looked at our business doing some wholesale and retail and found that 90 percent of our business was wholesale," she said.

Cascun-Valencic said a spinoff taking the inhouse wholesale skill and VoIP knowledge and creating a managed service offering, spearheaded by herself, seemed the obvious move. Totalfone would carry on, led by a new hire with more retail expertise, she said.

"As we were pushing for things like compliance and regulation and being ahead of the marketplace in 000 and emergency service, a lot of people were asking how we were doing it," she said.

VNO offered managed "white label" VoIP services targeting ISPs, integrators and other voice resellers. VNO's managed voice service was based on Symbio Networks carrier-grade platform and technologies, according to a company statement.

It had already provisioned 30,000 lines with customers, Cascun-Valencic said.

The offering bundles services and infrastructure for a monthly service fee, including billing, rates, technology and equipment while taking care of compliancy issues, she said.

"The biggest issue for service providers is how to introduce VoIP services and make money and still be able to meet the complex regulatory requirements," she said.

Resellers would pick a package to market under their own brand. VNO was offering packages for resellers offering 50 to 5000 lines or 2000 to 30,000 lines.

"We won't be the cheapest," she said. "But we'll offer quality."

ISPs, integrators and VARs could rebundle and price their offering as they pleased. The smaller players might include regional ISPs that could maximise their margins because they had few local competitors, Cascun-Valencic suggested.

Future offerings involving broadband-over-powerline could be expected, she added.

"There's a trial down with Aurora [Energy] with engin but we're also able to trial that as soon as their trial is over, and we have a similar trial in Queanbeyan with Country Energy," she said.

Cascun-Valencic has 20 years experience in ICT.