Data Voice Solutions

Mobilkom Austria, a mobile subsidiary of the Telekom Austria (News - Alert) Group, launched their latest offering—a combination of VoIP and mobile services—this week at the 3GSM (News - Alert) Congress in Barcelona. Christened  ‘A1 over IP,’ this blend of services will be available soon to the customers on their mobile phone handsets.

 

Boris Nemsic, who serves as CEO at both Telekom Austria Group and Mobilkom Austria, commented in a statement that “The use of VOIP is one of the hottest trends at the moment. According to Analysis Research, 42 percent of total call volume in Western Europe will be over VOIP by 2015. As innovation leader, we will actively co-shape the further development of this technology. The commercial launch of A1 over IP is the first step in this direction.”

 

Being the first company to initiate the integration of VoIP and mobile services, Mobilkom Austria conducted a test run involving a group of 2000 people. This helped the company gauge different reactions from customers, and observe the operational efficiency of the service within a controlled group.

 

This pilot project with 2,000 users was started on October 11, 2006. The results were extremely encouraging, to say the least; about three-quarters of the group rated service performance as either “very good” or “good.” This indicates the at the service has winning potential.

 

A cost effective service, with reasonable international call rates and the freedom to work on a PC whilst attending a call were reasons good enough for the group members to assign high ratings to the service. Overwhelming response from the test run lead the company to incorporate additional features in the final product to be launched commercially.

 

The service permits A1 customers to make free calls over the Internet. The users have the added advantage of retaining their regular 0664 phone numbers while calling mobile and fixed line networks, which is not available while using VoIP services such as Skype (News - Alert). This helps them retain their identities.

 

Another unique feature of this service is the fact that the incoming calls can be received at both mobile phones and PC. This multi-ringing feature permits incoming calls to the regular 0664 phone number go to both devices and the receiver has the discretion to use either of the two to answer the call.

 

In the first version of the service that was made available to the pilot group, video calls and conference calls among three people could easily be made. In addition, the service facilitated instant messaging.

 

The enhanced version is out for commercial use and the customers will enjoy the added benefits such as the contact management feature that facilitates import of Outlook data; presence function that shows the online status of the contacts and A1 over IP SMS sending facility. The Mobilbox also aids in PC-to-PC messaging.

 

Hannes Ametsreiter, director of marketing, distribution and customer services at Mobilkom Austria, commented, “VoIP will only be relevant in the long-term if it adapts to the business and becomes mobile. That is why we worked very closely with the test users during the first phase, evaluated their experiences and integrated them into the product.”

 

Having successfully synchronized two of the most important and used services, Mobilkom Austria is now waiting to taste the sweet fruit of commercial success.