commentary SingTel subsidiary Optus must think journalists have extremely short memories.

Yesterday the nation's number two telco issued a press release stating it would soon launch a "new and groundbreaking" Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) product, aimed at small to medium businesses (SMBs).

Optus claimed the launch would be the "first large-scale rollout of this product in Australia", that the product was "innovative" and that it would "transform" the way SMBs did business.

The only problem is that this isn't the first time Optus has launched this type of product.

A quick trawl through ZDNet Australia's archives reveals that in July 2004, Optus launched a similar VoIP product, aiming to capture one-third of the Australian business and government market.

One can only assume the fact that Optus is pumping up the VoIP hype again, two and half years later, means that the telco failed to meet that goal.

An Optus spokeswoman told your writer today that the product launched in 2004 -- a hosted "IP Centrex" solution -- was squarely aimed at the enterprise sector, while the new ipPhone product launched yesterday targeted small to medium businesses exclusively.

But if that is the case, why did Optus' own July 2004 press release, specifically mention small to medium enterprises as a target for that product?

In yesterday's statement, Optus's current managing director of its Small and Medium Business division, Paul Kitchin, said SMBs were looking for "big business" solutions to handle their telecommunications needs.

So why didn't they just test out Optus' existing big business solution? Maybe they did, and found it wanting.

IP Centrex has broadly failed to take off in the Australian market, after all. Most businesses still prefer to keep their own PABX-style equipment on the premises, rather than letting telcos do all the hosting work. The ongoing migration to IP telephony just means that a lot of those PABXs now do VoIP as well as legacy analogue telephony.

In addition, some surveys -- such as Pacific Internet's Broadband Barometer -- have shown that unlike the enterprise sector, SMBs are not even that interested in VoIP at the moment.

In your writer's opinion, Optus would be better off offering VoIP solutions to the consumer sector, which is currently getting into Internet telephony with record speed. Of course, the SingTel subsidiary wouldn't be first to that market ... established players Skype, Engin and even junior telcos like Internode and iiNet have already snapped up large swathes of the early adopters.

And of course providing an el cheapo VoIP consumer option might undercut Optus's existing voice telephony profits.

What do you think? Would you be interested in Optus's new SMB VoIP offering, or are you happy with your current solution? Drop me a line directly at renai.lemay@zdnet.com.au.