Back in 2002, it was a defiant gesture to make a phone call over the Internet. Not just because it challenged a communications model that stood for nearly 125 years, but also because at the time, call quality for VoIP was uneven at best.
That year VoxNet S.A. made its entrance into the risky and largely untested world of Internet telephony with a determination to set standards for dependability. Its motto was “transparent and measurable benefits for every customerr” – and from its outset, the Polish Internet Service Provider (ISP) planned a network infrastructure that would give customers confidence in the new Internet-based telephony alternative.
VoxNetr’s first emphasis was on prepaid card services. To support its new TeleRabat calling cards, VoxNet selected PortaBilling, a convergent billing, provisioning and customer management platform from PortaOne, to power the collection and administration of all TeleRabat billing data.
At the time, stable operation, technical support and price were our main considerations. We were so surprised by PortaBilling’s low price that we assumed it would not have many of the features common to other systems. However our initial assumptions proved to be completely false, and PortaBilling has more than lived up to all its claims about being feature-rich.
Marian Juskiewicz, President of VoxNet
Three years later, VoxNet undertook another major expansion by offering VoIP call origination services. Its new telephone system, based on premium-rate numbers and sold under the AleNumer name, was one of the original VoIP offerings made available to all customers across Poland. According to Juskiewicz, it only made sense to once again look to PortaOne to help drive this new and exciting initiative.
PortaSwitch, PortaOne’s convergent billing and softswitch platform, was a natural extension for us. It combined all the functionality of PortaBilling with a SIP softswitch capable of supporting any feature or service we could imagine. Plus it was designed to function seamlessly with our Cisco network infrastructure.
Marian Juskiewicz, President of VoxNet
The API in PortaSwitch gives us the opportunity for straightforward modifications and additional functionality. The software has proved to be very flexible. Moreover, the technical support we’ve received through our PortaCare contract – something we’ve carried since our first day with PortaOne – has always been very prompt and highly competent.
Marian Juskiewicz, President of VoxNet
For the past 12 years, the partnership between PortaOne and VoxNet has allowed VoxNet to serve both business and consumer accounts, modifying its service offerings as the market has dictated. VoxNet’s president believes his company’s success is due in no small part to the flexibility and reliability PortaSwitch offers.
PortaSwitch provides the system expandability we need to support our customers in a complex environment with lots of different services. We focus on delivering services of the highest quality. It’s very important for our customers to enjoy stable, continuous operation. PortaSwitch not only offers easy interoperability with different suppliers and types of equipment, but its ease-of-use reduces our expenditures on staff. As time passes, new needs in our industry will continue to emerge – but we’re confident PortaSwitch will handle them, as it always has.
Marian Juskiewicz, President of VoxNet
About PortaSwitch
By providing Class 4/5 performance and a full set of advanced features spanning IVR playback, unified messaging and conferencing as well as Session Border Controller functionality, PortaSwitch supports calling cards, retail and wholesale carrier business models. It also allows telcos to serve business customers with hosted IP PBX or IP Centrex. Finally, the PortaSwitch configuration server provides a single point for updates, system management, and logging storage.
