news IP telephony and broadband company MyNetFone this week revealed it had been selected by the Tasmanian Government to supply Voice over IP telephony services to the state, in a three-year deal expected to be worth some $20 million over the period.

The State Government – which in the past had traditionally had an extensive relationship with Telstra when it comes to the provision of telecommunications services — is planning to invest in what it described as “next-generation” communications technology with the aim of improving service levels and enhancing productivity.

In a statement issued by MyNetFone this week, the company said the delivery of IP telephony services to Tasmania would be supported by the company’s SIP trunking system, which will allow the state to extend IP communications to employees in all offices, regardless of whether they were located on a main site, at branch offices or working remotely. MyNetFone will invest in additional infrastructure in Tasmania to support the deal.

The company plans to deploy a “fully redundant and fully diverse carrier-grade voice switching network” in the state, as well as diverse IP connections to the mainland to connect to the rest of Australia’s public switched telephony network – the traditional PSTN.

“MyNetFone is a young, energetic, innovative company which has proven it is capable to develop services that meet the Government’s requirements,” said Piero Peroni, the general manager of Tasmania’s TMD technology purchasing division. “This agreement will not only put the Government in a great position to meet the evolving needs of our communities, but will also contribute to the growth and diversity of the local industry, with MyNetFone’s expanded operations and commitment to the state.”

“We are looking forward to a long and successful partnership with them,” Peroni added.

MyNetFone chief executive Rene Sugo said that the agreement with the Tasmanian Government demonstrated that Internet telephony had reached the maturity and scalability to service even the largest public and private sector organisations. MyNetFone subsidiary Symbio is also one of the few direct wholesalers to invest in NBN services in Tasmania this year – allowing smaller ISPs to resell NBN services. This investment was also cited in the media release as being supportive of the Tasmanian Government’s communications plans.

opinion/analysis
I was very surprised to see that the Tasmanian Government – a large organisation – had signed this contract with MyNetFone, which is more usually known for its consumer-grade VoIP and broadband offerings. It would be more normal for a state government or large private sector organisation to go to existing business carriers such as Telstra, Optus or Macquarie Telecom for these kind of IP telephony needs.

I will be interested to see whether MyNetFone is able to handle the volume of work which the Tasmanian Government looks to want to throw its way in the area of SIP trunking. If the company is able to handle this load, perhaps MyNetFone has the potential to emerge as an important player in Australia’s corporate telephony market. It will be fascinating to see what emerges from this contract.

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1. Rene Sugo
   Posted 25/07/2012 at 4:16 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Hi Renai,

   I appreciate your opinion, however you may not be aware that MNF is the 5th largest carrier of non mobile voice in this country, and the largest VoIP network. We handle approximately 2 Billion minutes of traffic per annum already, and we are growing at 30% per annum.

   Also we have over 2000 business and enterprise customers already connected to our network, as well as over 80 wholesale service providers.

   With regards to this particular contract, we tendered and were chosen as the best provider. We have also been undergoing trials with the Tassie Govt for almost 3 years. I think our solution and capabilities have been well investigated and proven.

   Whilst I agree that any Government contract will be a challenge, I am confident MyNetFone will exceed the Government’s expectations.

   I’m happy to discuss should you have any further enquiries.

   Thanks,
   Rene.

   • Brett
     Posted 26/07/2012 at 4:15 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Congrats Rene and MNF. I went looking for your URL and makes me wonder why you haven’t bought advertising space on this page?

     Cheers
     Brett

2. seven_tech
   Posted 25/07/2012 at 4:23 pm | Permalink | Reply

   I think, if MyNetFone can pull this off and as Rene has stated, they have experience in this area, then we could be seeing a shift which will result in, along with the NBN, a shift in the way mainstream business and government handle phone services.

   The biggest barrier to this country to VOIP services has been the lack of offerings from the 2 main Telco’s, Optus and Telstra (obvious considering their penchant for wanting “line rental” payments to cover infrastructure costs). If more contracts like this are awarded AND end up successful, we could well be on the way to a changing landscape of telephony services, with added cost savings to boot!

   • Frank
     Posted 25/07/2012 at 6:15 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Won’t Tasmania have full NBN coverage in a couple of years?

     I’m no sure what people are so critical of Telstra and its need to maintain line rental. The fact is Telstra is responsible for the delivery of voice services. It has a legacy network that works. I’m sure it would just love to switch it off and invest new VoIP technology for everybody. The sad part is the legacy network needs to remain functional until NBN Co has the necessary infrastructure in place to allow that legacy network to become redundant. Unlike MNF and others all the need to do is worry about new VoIP technologies, there is no legacy network to keep running (at its high cost).

     Yes it’s very easy for people to throw barbs at Telstra, but the fact remains, there is a high reliance on them for delivery of services both in Australia and around the world.

     Good on MNF for giving this a go. The challenge will be great and I hope you succeed.

     • seven_tech
       Posted 25/07/2012 at 6:22 pm | Permalink | Reply

       @Frank

       This is partly true about Telstra being required to provide services. But go have a look at their financial statements- it may very well be expensive to provide these services, but they still manage to come out with a $55 ARPU on PSTN lines, while it only costs them around $25/line.

       The lines are capable of delivering VOIP in many millions of cases…it’s just that Telstra wouldn’t make as much money this way. They could charge $35 for line rental and VOIP, plus $10 for calls (like iinet do) and STILL make $20/line (seeing as those calls are VOIP and data is MUCH cheaper than keeping all the PSTN equipment running)….but they chose to use the current infrastructure to its’ maximum milking potential, by charging for phone calls on PSTN even though the consumer loses out.

       Don’t get me wrong, Telstra does, in most cases, a decent job of delivering these voice services, but you won’t find much love for a company that gouges the consumer just because they can. VOIP services are not new (they’ve been around for 20 years), but the only way Telstra chooses to offer them is in enterprise, and they charge up the wazoo for them too!

3. Tim
   Posted 25/07/2012 at 8:02 pm | Permalink | Reply

   We use MyNetFone for our voip solutions and absolutely love it! Never missed a beat. Good to see them growing :)

4. Michael
   Posted 26/07/2012 at 12:49 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Congratulations to MNF!

   I agree with Renai that it is a suprise, and judging by the huge surge in the stock price (before trading was halted) yesterday it was a suprise to a lot of people.

   One point i would like to see discussed more is the benefits of voip beyond lower costs.

   From my point of view the main advantage to a large business isn’t the lower cost of calls (as businesses are generally on plans where the call cost is broadly the same). Instead the big advantage is the wider flexibility of voip. When everything is software based collecting call metrics and analyzing them becomes so much easier. It will be interesting to see if MNF will focus on giving access to innovative features or delivering a service that replicates the existing Telstra system.

5. Nick
   Posted 28/07/2012 at 6:18 pm | Permalink | Reply

   What I’d like to know is how come the share price started seriously hiking over a month ago and no significant media releases before this one last week.

6. Johnny Oneal
   Posted 15/09/2012 at 3:16 am | Permalink | Reply

   This contract between Tasmania and MNF would be a great challenge. in my point of view, I know MNF will do everything that the government of Tasmania needs. It is not also easy to find a provider that will cater a state. This just shows that Tasmania trusted MNF and will faithfully believe the capabilities of the products or services provided. Looking forward that this will become bigger for MNF!

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