subject: How can an ISDN 10/20/30 solution help your Australian business? [print this page] How can an ISDN 10/20/30 solution help your Australian business?
There are a number of different types of technology when looking at telecommunications in Australia. There are the traditional PSTN telephone lines, and there are ISDN services. ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network. ISDN is a digital service that has a number of exciting benefits. It is generally used by a business that requires more than just the basic type of telephone services. An ISDN 10/20/30 service is only used if the business requires 10 or more channels.
Each channel allows for a voice call to be made, so if a business has an ISDN 10 service, they can make 10 simultaneous calls at the same time.
One key benefit of an ISDN 10/20/30 solution is that a 100 number indial range can be placed on top of the ISDN service. This gives the business a range of 100 numbers. The phone system can then be set up so that every person can have their own dedicated extension number that will also act as a direct line number. It also allows for the business to advertise different numbers for different services. For example, a business could advertise one number for sales, and have another number for their internal salesforce to call. That way when the phone rings the business will know who's calling, and who to give priority to.
Another key benefit to ISDN services is the ability to do external call transfer. This means that if someone calls a business, at some stage during the call the call can be transferred to a third party. This is particularly useful if a business operates from more than one location. Also if a business makes use of an outsourced support team a call can be transferred to this team as if they are in the same building.
In Australia there are a number of carriers that provide ISDN 10/20/30 services. The largest of these ISDN carriers is Telstra. They only provide the services in groups of 10 channels. After Telstra there are Optus who provide these services. They provide any number of channels over 10. This means that it can be more suitable for customers who may require 15 channels for example. AAPT also offer ISDN services, but their coverage is not as vast as Optus or Telstra.
There are some service providers that have struck special deals with the carriers to be able to offer free installation on ISDN 10/20/30 services. It is strongly advised to call around some service providers, rather than just going to the large national companies. For some further information on ISDN 10/20/30 services and potential charges can be found here: http://www.iftelecom.com.au/isdn-10-20-30.htm
