Phone number portability enhances Naked appeal
Internode's Local Number Portability service will enable a customer to migrate - or "port" - their current telephone number to NodePhone, Internode's Voice over IP-based phone service.
As well as benefiting Naked ADSL2+ customers, this new service allows NBN customers to eliminate the monthly rental costs of a standard telephone line by moving their current number to NodePhone.
Internode is launching the first phase of Local Number Portability this week, offering the service to residential customers in capital cities who use a Telstra-provided analogue telephone service. Over time, it will be extended to business customers and customers of other phone service providers.
Internode product manager Phil Dempster said local number portability was a common request from people enquiring about Naked ADLS2+ broadband. "Being able to keep their existing phone number overcomes a barrier to people adopting Naked ADSL2+," he said.
"We also think it will appeal to NBN customers who are so happy with their fibre-based broadband service that they decide to get rid of the monthly cost of renting a separate telephone line."
"Another benefit for customers with a ported number is that when moving house, they can now take their telephone number, delivered by an Internode broadband service, to anywhere in their metropolitan area."
This initial release of Internode Number Portability is available for customers in the Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney metropolitan areas. Initially the porting service requires the customer to have their phone number directly with Telstra, although it will be extended to include other phone service providers at a later date. The number-porting process costs $29.95.
Internode offers two ways for customers to port their existing phone number to NodePhone. If they have their broadband service running on a second phone line, a Simple Phone Number Port can migrate the first phone number to NodePhone: All other services linked with the first number will cease.
Alternatively, a Naked Phone Number Port will migrate an existing analogue telephone line to a Naked ADSL2+ service and subsequently port the telephone number to NodePhone.
Mr. Dempster said it was important to note customers would need VoIP-capable equipment to use the NodePhone service. "This can be one of our VoIP-capable routers, a standard router with a Siemens Gigaset handset or the customer's own NodePhone-supported VoIP hardware," he said.
Internode has delivered its Local Number Portability service by working with partners including Dialogic, which supplied the hardware needed in telephone exchanges; ivsTel which provided technical expertise for connecting to other carriers; and Paradigm.One, which provides the system to interface to other carriers. Internode's signalling gateways were provided by Cisco.
