Cloud-based technology offers cost-effective comms

PCCW GLOBAL, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, and Virtutel, an Australiabased wholesale and enterprise telecommunications specialist, have signed a service agreement to bring hosted unified voice services to Australia and New Zealand using PCCW Global’s multi-tenant nTwine Unified Communications-as-a Service (UCaaS) platform.

PCCW Global will provide a turnkey nTwine hosted telephony and collaboration service to Virtutel, enabling it to take this highly innovative offering rapidly to market in both Australia and New Zealand. PCCW Global’s service includes the provision of fully white-labelled hosted platform together with a best- of- breed fully automated orchestration operation and business system, enabling Virtutel to offer unique service propositions to its customers while leveraging PCCW Global’s coverage across five continents.

Traditionally, companies acquire and deploy their own communications infrastructure, purchasing and implementing on-premises telephone PBX switches to avoid the cost of individual phone lines for each employee. PCCW Global’s nTwine UCaaS platform utilises the advantages of cloud technology to provide far more flexible, easily scalable and costeffective communication solutions for both large and small businesses.

The nTwine UCaaS service makes use of PCCW Global’s own resilient fiber network spanning over 3,000 cities in 150 countries and its relationships with more than 200 global operators to provide international voice and VoIPX services, eliminating the need for businesses to invest in and run their own communications infrastructure. PCCW Global’s nTwine solution is now available in over 30 countries and continues to expand.

Globally, UCaaS and Hosted PBX services are growing in popularity because they enable businesses to scale their communications via an agile deployment, minimising up-front capital expenditure while reducing the overall time to implement.

According to Gartner (April 2018), the market for cloud based telephony and messaging will grow by 14.4 percent CAGR to reach US$22 billion in 2022.

Ronnie Klingner, President, Mobility and Digital Solutions, PCCW Global, said that the nTwine platform will add value to Virtutel’s expansion plans in the Australian and New Zealand markets and supports multinational enterprises providing a ubiquitous service globally. “Our full-featured, multi-tenant orchestration solution will help Virtutel to service both wholesale channels and direct enterprise customers, while the web portal provides them with end-to- end control over the entire customer life cycle,” she said.

David Allen, Managing Director of Virtutel, said, “The PCCW Global team has been extremely committed to our partnership and the nTwine uCaaS solution is a perfect fit for our business growth in the coming years. Thanks in large part to the transformative power of cloud computing, in most markets the idea of what makes an office is rapidly changing. We expect that the technologically savvy and forwardthinking business leaders in Australia and New Zealand will appreciate the advantages the nTwine service provides.”