Colt and Avaya offer hosted VoIP

Colt and Avaya have launced a managed IP PBX service aimed at firms with 20 to 1,000 staff

Firms wanting voice over IP (VoIP) services gained a new option as Colt Telecom and comms vendor Avaya launched a managed IP PBX service. Customers can use the system hosted in Colt’s datacentres or on their own premises.

Colt IP Voice can be ordered as a standalone service, or as part of Colt’s recently introduced Total1 service. The offering is available in 13 European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.

Colt chief technical officer Alireza Mahmoodshahi said that additional services will be introduced in future. “These will include video telephony, voice recording and fixed-mobile converged services using dual-mode phones.”

There is an initial one-off charge of £10 per user and then rental fees starting at £12 per user per month, depending on the type of handsets selected. Call packages include a £17 per user per month flat rate, or per-call costs for lightly-used phones. Calls to countries where this service is not available would attract extra charges.

Colt chief executive Jean-Yves Charlier said that IP telephony is spreading rapidly. “Last year more IP lines were delivered than traditional TDM [time division multiplexing] lines. And in a recent Colt survey, 56 percent of companies indicated that they had clear plans to migrate to VoIP within two to three years,” he said.

Chris Lewis of analyst Ovum commented, “IP VPN is the platform of choice for most businesses, but it takes a long time to get rid of all the old legacy services.” He added that Ovum’s own research agreed with Colt’s findings but some potential users were confused “due to how systems were presented – it’s very important that we don’t bamboozle end-users with technology and acronyms”.

Colt IP Voice will be delivered on Avaya Communication Manager, SBS3000 Shared Blade Server, IP Softphone, 4625 and 4621 IP telephones, 3616 digital telephones and Avaya voicemail.

At the launch, Charlier said that for firms wanting more predictable bills, “We are thinking about bundling ‘mobile minutes’, until dual-mode handsets come through, and they are on the roadmap.”