Voiceflex is hoping to capitalise on a lack of competition as launching its SoGEA Voice solution today.
The SIP and Hosted Telephony provider has launched the solution as a direct replacement to PSTN lines, making use of the Single order General Ethernet Access technology that uses copper or fibre lines to provide internet access without the necessity for a phone line.
Voiceflex estimates there are 28 million data services with a PSTN line that will need to be replaced with SoGEA by 2025 making it a billion pounds a year industry with all 28 million circuits having to be changed within the next four years.
Speaking to UC Today, Voiceflex Sales and Marketing Director, Paul Taylor, said “we are pushing this solution to be first to market.
“There’s quite a lot of information around SoGEA but nothing around SoGEA voice and there’s a lot of ISPs and a lot of aggregators wondering how to move forward with this technology”
We’ve had some problems with partners who have looked to put a SIP trunk on a SoGEA line and then configure it. We didn’t think that was worth doing because they’d have to have a specialist piece of equipment to do it, and a SIP Trunk does not offer anything as the whole architecture will go to the PABX.
So, it’s one of those where people are trying to look for an application they can fulfil with a voice element, but don’t necessarily know that SoGEA Voice is there or there is a product that provides that application.
Our partners are going to need a voice application that will work across all the different platforms they work with or that they can sell to networks that do not have a voice element on it. So there’s an opportunity for those to sell a value or a value added service into its customer base. That’s that’s why we are pushing on the development team so that if we are not the first, we are one of the first with a true application.”
Connectivity
Taylor said that the removal of a phone line does not mean that users will not want fixed line capabilities in the future but added that, as the PSTN lines are turned off, customers will be exploring new technologies to deliver the same service.
“We’re testing the product in house on kit that we’ve got but it’s very new in the journey for SoGEA. There’s only a couple of exchanges that have actually got it at the moment, but it’s going to be quite heavily rolled out by BT and the other providers over the next 24 months.
However, when people are looking at the market potential for this they’re simply going to realise that they do need a voice element, so we want to make sure that everybody knows about our application, even if they don’t use it for six to 12 months.
We are first to market with this because it is going to happen. I think the majority of users, such as me, have a BT line and a bill that comes through every month, and the only reason they’ve got it is to support the broadband connection.
There’s new technologies that might be competitive to SoGEA, such as 5G routers, that are going to be available from next year and people might decide to have a router with a 5G card in there, or have 5G as backup to SoGEA. But there’s one thing for sure, that there’s still a high proportion of those 28 million people that are always going to need a voice element going forward.”
