The various services offered by Australian VoIP providers is very diverse and a package to suit your individual needs can generally be tailored by most providers with little effort, in order to understand what is available here is quick introduction to whats on offer:

The Basics:

Outgoing Calls:

• The entry to point to VoIP is an outgoing or “One Way” account this account will allow you to make outgoing calls only through your internet connection while still receiving your incoming calls through the standard PSTN line. When receiving this service you will be given an online identification number and a pin number to authenticate the service.

Incoming Calls:

There are two basic ways to receive incoming calls through VoIP.

• Your VoIP provider supplying you with a DID (Direct In Dial), this will be a regular telephone number located in the area of the providers servers, these are generally located in metro areas of Australia, however many providers are now getting a regional presence. The location of this number will impact the calling rates of people calling you. The advantage of DID’s is that you can now be allocated numbers in different locations to your physical address (ie if you live in Melbourne and have family in Perth, it is possible for you to have a Perth number allowing you to be called by family members at local rates).

• Your VoIP provider may provide a gateway service, this means that people wishing to call you call a standard provider number (often a 1300 number) and then dial your extension (your online identification number). Making the phone connected to your VoIP line ring.

Value Added Features

Note some of these services are included in VoIP provider plans some are additional features which may incur an additional cost for service;

Voicemail,

Voicemail to Email,

Fax to Email,

Caller ID,

Do not disturb,

Conference Calling,

Call transfer,

Call Filtering,

Call Forward,

Call Forward No Answer,

Call Forward, Busy,

Number screening with call redirect, (will redirect selected numbers to voicemail or another number)

Incoming 13 and 1800 numbers

Time of day routing (will send calls to preselected number depending on the day/date/time of call)

Peering (will allow you to call VoIP users on other VoIP networks)

Direct In Dial numbers