A Canadian company is to begin work immediately on building Australia's first nationwide Voice over IP phone network.
The new network is expected to slash the cost of interstate calls.
Users will be offered unlimited calls anywhere in the country for a single monthly subscription in much the same way as they would subscribe to an Internet Service Provider.
Orbit Canada announced this morning it had signed an agreement with Perth-based ITSP Australia to build the phone-to-phone VoIP network that will link Australia's six major cities.
Last year, Orbit completed the first stage of a phone-to-phone VoIP-based system linking nine major Canadian urban centres.
That service allows Canadian customers to pay a single monthly subscription of $C19.95 and make unlimited calls within North America.
The agreement with ITSP Australia will see Orbit use its VoIP networking software and equipment to assist in building the network. The agreement between the two companies calls for Orbit to be awarded a 10 percent interest in ITSP Australia and earn fee income.
All hardware and installation costs will be borne by ITSP, which stands for Internet Telephony Service Provider.
Orbit's chief executive officer Gord McMehen, said work on the network would start immediately and was expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year.
ITSP's CEO David Hicks said the company intended to be the first group to bring phone-to-phone VoIP-based communications services to Australian consumers. He said Orbit's network allowed subscribers to use their own home and business telephones.
"No proprietary equipment or software is required to subscribe to the service."
ITSP Australia is a newly formed company that was specifically formed to build and operate Australia's first 'Phone-To-Phone' VoIP-based communications network.
