Wireless VoIP a Reality with Storm and Sentech

A commercially installed wireless VoIP solution based on Sentech's BizNet Xpress has gone live thanks to the collaboration between VoIP supplier, Storm, and telecommunications company, Sentech.

A Gauteng-based advertising agency has been successfully running its voice over Sentech’s enterprise grade wireless access product since the middle of October.

The significance of this announcement is that it officially marks the first genuine alternative to Telkom’s fixed-line Diginet product, says Dave Gale, business development director at Storm. The tests that Storm has conducted over the past few weeks have shown that BizNet Xpress meets, if not at times, exceed the quality parameters of Diginet.

BizNet Xpress offers a constant bit rate, making it the one of very few wireless products stable enough to efficiently carry enterprise-grade VoIP traffic, says Georg Wenhold, Biznet product manager at Sentech. He adds, “Unlike other wireless alternatives, it is not a contended service. This means that users and service providers know exactly how much bandwidth they have available, and can shape and modify the services they run on this pipe to suit their needs.”

So, BizNet Xpress reliability is guaranteed. This is step one to creating a successful product. But, to be honest, quality has never been an issue with Diginet, says Gale. So, while it is vital that Biznet Xpress quality equals that of the Telkom product, this alone is not going attract customers.

Price and lead time however, are issues. This moves us onto step two: getting the operational implementation side of the technology right. BizNet Xpress definitely has better pricing, and, in terms of a faster install time, Sentech management has committed to getting this right.

Currently Telkom is taking up to 13 weeks to install a Diginet line. Sentech has agreed to technical installations within just two weeks. This, combined with cost-effective pricing, makes BizNet Xpress a serious competitor to the Telkom product, says Wenhold.