Simwood Launch VoIP Product Aimed at UK AltNet Broadband ISPs
Wholesale communications provider SIMWOOD, which supplies UK businesses and broadband ISPs, has launched a new residential VoIP product that’s designed to help Alternative Network (AltNet) providers offer their customers an alternative to old analogue copper phone line services.
Many AltNet ISPs are currently deploying Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based networks and thus need to be able to offer their own IP-based home phone solutions. The good news is that SIMWOOD have been working on just such a product (white-labelled voice solution) since they acquired Sipcentric and its hosted VoIP platform in 2019.
Providers will be able to choose from two different account types that address different consumer needs – ‘Residential‘ and ‘Residential Plus‘. The ‘Residential’ service is intended to be the IP based equivalent to a single PSTN style phone line with simple features.
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Meanwhile, ‘Residential Plus’ is designed for family environments and includes various extra features, such as smartphone apps that enable the family to have full control (e.g. all family members taking the land-line anywhere in apps or giving Granny her own direct line in her annexe). End users can also self-manage their needs within the web-based portal (e.g. keep track of bills and calls in real-time).
All services also include encrypted voice, fraud prevention and API integration, as well as a hosted PBX and user-friendly interfaces (for the Plus version).
Simon Woodhead, CEO of Simwood, said:
“VoIP has revolutionised business communications, in both cost and features, but home users have been left behind. We first show-cased our Residential solution at SimCon in early 2020 and it has had loads of work and customer trials since.
As copper services get turned off and we move to full-fibre, we’re convinced this is the only technically viable solution in the market-place at a price point that enables Partners to both add disruptive value and massively grow ARPU, all entirely branded to them.”
Naturally, there’s also plenty of control for partners to customise the service (branding etc.) and tariffs around their own needs.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I see this as mixed news. Whilst it’s good more FTTP altnet operators will have a simple and easy way to offer landline services to those who need it, I can’t see who this will really benefit. Customers who are really dependent on the landline service, I would assume, would not be the target customer for altnet high speed fibre services.
Plus also, we have the issue here that if it’s being provided through an FTTP provider, what happens when the customer wants to migrate?
Provider independent services are the way forward, in my opinion.
A lot of people who aren’t landline-only customers still want a home phone service with broadband because that’s what they need or are familiar with. As for number porting, Ofcom are working to make that more flexible, so it won’t matter what platform you’re using.
We are going to lose access to copper lines soon so we need alternatives. At the moment there are very few residential VOIP offerings. Most are business services which are expensive.
So from what I can see here Simwood are offering a cheap alternative to a copper based landline service but also offering a service that provides the additional benefits that you can get from VOIP.
With number porting you can keep your old landline number and use it on the new VOIP service.
The biggest benefit I have is that now I can forward landline calls to my mobile so I don’t miss calls when I’m out. My landline number has been around for years so don’t really want to lose it just yet.