Orcon Genius, what is the business model for VOIP in the customers house?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Orcon Genius, what is the business model for VOIP in the customers house?

dirtbag

33 posts

Geek

#91620 17-Oct-2011 22:22

Hi All,

This is not a gripe as I am more than happy with my Genius box and the service it provides. This is more of a curiosity.
I'm curious to learn why Orcon have brought the Genius to the market and why I can have the same service for $25/month less than before. (I was on the gold plan and had a rental modem) Is this set up significantly cheaper to implement than having what essentially I believe to be a line card with a VOIP adapter at the exchange. There are risks attached with changing customers over to the Genuis platform especially if the customers phone line or home wiring are not up to scratch. I did think about these things before signing up and if we didn't have a couple of cellphones in the house I'm not sure if i could have talked my partner into it. A concern also is the operation in the event of a power loss to which I was prepared to invest in a small UPS unit using the $25/month we are now saving for the service.
So what drives an ISP to put a lot of its reputation on a box located in an environment that it has no control over .
Does the equipment requirement at the exchange become significantly less, use less power or occupy less space than the other system? There must be a good business model in this otherwise why would they bother.
One of you out there must know.

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#534525 18-Oct-2011 02:08

I cant answer the other questions, but I know that you can make emergency calls with a standard landline phone plugged into a standard working phone jack. But that's only to emergency services, not to family etc. which I guess would be a big must. That's a big thing to think about before switching. But how often does that happen anyways.

Also I want to know about the other questions you raised. Carry on ;D

-Sam

sbiddle

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#534527 18-Oct-2011 06:18

CPE based VoIP is the future, it's what every home in Australia will have once their NBN is complete and the Telstra copper network is shut down, and it's what will happen in NZ with the UFB rollout if they chose to migrate to a fibre service.

While some ULL providers have chosen to provide legacy PSTN services over POTS, the reality is it's a dead end product that while it does still have some significant advantages, is doomed in the future and already struggling in a world with cabinetisation.

Zeon

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#537156 25-Oct-2011 09:15

Quick question on those Orcon Genius Lite units, do they support multiple lines? Also Fax, monitored alarms, EFTPOS etc.? Can you port 2 lines to it?

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Sounddude

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#537161 25-Oct-2011 09:23

Hi Zeon

Currently we only support one line.

FAX is ok
EFTPOS, Alarms - Not supported at this time.

Hope that helps

nickb800

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#537186 25-Oct-2011 10:00

I think Orcon was pretty brave bringing this to the market, while it does present great opportunities for revenue, I can only imagine the Closeup/Campbell live article on the old lady who couldnt call 111 in an emergency when the power went out. Of course most people only have cordless phones, so wouldnt be able to call out in a power cut anyway, but if they have Genius then they get to blame someone else - Orcon

Im a geek, i use voip, but im not sure the general public really understand the risks associated with it, or would think like the OP and get a UPS.

Zeon

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#537192 25-Oct-2011 10:06

Sounddude: Hi Zeon

Currently we only support one line.

FAX is ok
EFTPOS, Alarms - Not supported at this time.

Hope that helps

Thanks for the info Sounddude. EFTPOS is no biggie as that can now be run directly over the net and same with some monitored alarms. Fax though is a bit tricky as they are usually on different numbers. Do the units physically have 2x FXS lines so more could be provisioned in the future?

Any info on the actual limitations around EFTPOS etc.? I presume your running G711? I know that EFTPOS runs OK on VFX for example so is it just around your implementation of VOIP.

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