What NodePhone offers

NodePhone is a service offered by Internode which allows you to make phone calls via a broadband Internode service.

It is designed and optimised for use on the Internode/Agile national network, however it will also work (subject to potential reduced call quality) through other broadband services.

It is a high quality, high availability service which is designed to provide the best possible results available over an IP network, through tight integration with the Internode National network and the use of carrier grade voice handling and switching equipment.

What NodePhone does not offer

NodePhone is not a full 'Standard Telephone Service'. NodePhone1 allows outbound calling to specific calling prefixes (as listed in our rate table and elsewhere in this FAQ). NodePhone2 extends on this and allows inbound calls as well as outbound.

When used with our recommended hardware devices, normal inbound calls to your existing PSTN number arrive and ring on the same handset that you can use for originating outbound calls with NodePhone1. Our recommended hardware includes the OPEN Networks 812L Analogue Telephone Adapter and the Billion 6404, 7401 and 7404 series of gateway devices (these are combined Routers and Analogue Telephone Adapters); we also support the Sipura 3000 Analogue Telephone Adapter.

Hence NodePhone is essentially an overlay service that adds features and improves the economics of many call types, and works in conjunction with an existing Standard Telephone Service.

Why is NodePhone better than other VoIP calling services?

There are other VoIP calling services on the market. But NodePhone is different.

NodePhone is a carrier provided, private network based voice service. While it uses protocols that will also work over 'the Internet', NodePhone is not an Internet calling service.

Rather, it is a QoS-enabled, carrier-grade voice service running on a private, quality controlled network.

Its client-server architecture also automatically avoids a variety of problems that can occur when using peer-to-peer voice calling services.

Providers offering VoIP services that are not integrated with their own private national network, or that are peer to peer rather than client-server based, are offering you a service they simply cannot guarantee - because they don't control the data paths being used to carry your voice.

As is usually the case with network based services, you may not 'hear' the difference on a good day (although many of our customers do tell us that NodePhone sounds audibly better than other VoIP services!).

But on a bad day on someone else's network, NodePhone will be unaffected.

NodePhone uses advanced 'Session Border Controllers' to convert the VoIP transaction from a peer to peer process into a client-server one, and the Internode national network then grooms the IP packets to and from the SBCs to ensure that those IP packets have the minimum possible jitter, packet loss, and latency.

When you use NodePhone, your call is carried entirely over our private national network to our multiple gateways into the fixed and mobile telephone networks, where the call is converted back into 'conventional' voice for delivery to its destination.

We operate our own private (inter)national network, and we peer, nationally, at practically every ISP peering point in the country.

Our client-server SBC design draws traffic flows into the national Internode network in your local state, across your nearest peering point, and then transports your voice data over our own network from that point on.

As a result, if your current ISP does not have their own national private network, the call quality achievable with NodePhone will generally be superior to that obtainable using a third party VoIP service, where packets transported on a best-effort basis over a best-effort Internet path that may cross many ISP borders on its way from you to your called party.

Customers of other ISPs are hence able to take advantage of the superior quality of NodePhone, and can download an application form from the NodePhone Signup page.

How is NodePhone technically better, compared to other VoIP providers?

Through intelligent network design and carrier grade voice switches NodePhone is able to provide services other VoIP providers simply can't.

These carrier grade voice switches provide features such as automatic NAT traversal (eliminating the need for messy port forwarding on your ADSL router), as well as unprecedented security (provided by the Internode private national network).

Our voice switch is a carrier grade fully redundant system from Broadsoft.

The voice switch is completely redundant, using a combination of mirrored and N+1 redundant server clusters, meaning there is no single point of failure in the resulting switching system.

The feature set of the voice switch is world class, offering the technical capability to offer every feature found in a conventional modern 'class 5' carrier PSTN switch.

The client-server voice data flow handling, and the security of interaction with our system from client systems, is handled by advanced Session Border Controller units, which are dovetailed with our Broadsoft switching system.

The SBCs are installed in fully redundant mirrored pairs and seamlessly 'fail over' should a unit ever go offline - without even dropping a call.

The SBCs that provide security, reliability, automatic NAT gateway traversal, improved interoperability, and a host of other features that distinguish NodePhone from 'toy' VoIP services that may offer a simple SIP proxy server, and nothing else.

NodePhone is simply at the opposite end of the quality and feature spectrum to a 'best effort', peer to peer, feature-poor SIP proxy. The combination of our switching technology, our SBCs, our use of high quality customer end equipment, and especially the fact that it all runs over our own private national network, leads to a world class, IP based voice calling service.

What other features will be released for NodePhone?

Over a managed series of product enhancement phases, Internode is introducing a variety of additional and enhanced features for NodePhone customers.

Examples of intended upcoming features include:

• Inbound direct calling from the PSTN to your NodePhone number (now available with NodePhone2)
• Voice Mail (now available with NodePhone2)
• Business services such as multiple numbers and trunking (multiple channels now available via NodePhone MultiLine)
• Centrex-style 'virtual PABX' services for group inter-working, management and control

More information will be provided on these features as they become available in the future.

What hardware is needed to access NodePhone?

We sell and recommend the hardware referenced on this page; we also support the Sipura 3000 Analogue Telephone Adapter. All of these devices allow the seamless 'overlaying' of a NodePhone service into an existing Standard Telephone Service.

When properly configured and installed, these devices switch calls to NodePhone automatically. They also feature automatic 'fail over', to hand these calls back to your Standard Telephone Service should NodePhone connectivity be unavailable for any reason (such as your broadband service being temporarily offline).

If you already have a QoS-enabled broadband router with a free Ethernet port - such as the Open Networks 624 & 625 series sold and supported by Internode - we recommend the OPEN Networks 812L Analogue Telephone Adapter. You can order a ('non-locked') OPEN Networks 812L from Internode during the online signup process for NodePhone. If you have already obtained an OPEN Networks 812L or Sipura SPA-3000, you are welcome to use it with NodePhone - simply follow the configuration steps below.

Alternatively, you may wish to consider the Billion 7401-VGPM, 7404-VGPM or 7404-VGOM broadband gateways. These 'all in one' devices feature in-built voice and fail-over ports, as well as being an excellent ADSL router, Ethernet switch, Internet firewall and wireless access point. The '-VGOM' model adds Virtual Private Network functionality. You do not need to add any further hardware with these devices.

As a final option, we also sell and support the Billion 6404-VP and 6404-VGP. The 6404-VP is an Ethernet router (it does not support ADSL connections), with an Ethernet switch and Internet firewall, and the same voice and failover ports as the 7404 series. The 6404-VGP is similar to the 6404-VP, with the addition of a wireless access point. These devices are recommended where your Internet connection is presented as Ethernet - for example on our 'Wireless DSL' regional wireless broadband network. They also may suit your requirements if you currently have a simple ADSL modem or one port router, and require a device that provides the PPP connection client, firewall, voice ports, Ethernet switch and (optionally) wireless access point.

We provide a Configuration Guide Page which contains instructions for how to configure any of these supported devices for use with NodePhone.

What about cheaper or alternative VoIP access devices?

Internode is continuously evaluating VoIP access devices to be offered as alternatives in future.

When alternative devices are certified by Internode, we will offer them for sale and provide support information for their use with NodePhone on our web site.

However, customers who have a preferred SIP-speaking telephone adapter, gateway, soft-phone (or similar) that they wish to use with NodePhone are welcome to do so, subject to the following provisos:

• NodePhone is a standards compliant, SIP based VoIP calling service. Your device needs to be fully compliant with the relevant standards.
• Devices Internode have not certified are not guaranteed to work, or to work well. In particular, some interoperability problems and/or some calling features may not work with NodePhone.
• Internode staff are happy to provide basic configuration information but they are not necessarily familiar with your device. As a result, you may need to consult your hardware supplier for technical support if you require it.

What about business plans?

NodePhone MultiLine extends the benefits of NodePhone into the business and corporate environment, by supporting additional channels of calling capacity from an IP PABX. Further information is available at NodePhone MultiLine.

Further product enhancements to NodePhone for business will be available in the future.

What is the billing cycle?

All NodePhone charges are billed on a monthly basis.

Can I check what calls I have made, and what they cost, before I get my monthly bill?

Yes, you can.

Just log into My Internode and select the NodePhone Toolbox.

What about inbound calls from the PSTN to a NodePhone customer?

NodePhone1 services can only receive calls from other NodePhone customers.

NodePhone2 services allow inbound calls from the standard telephone network.

If your NodePhone hardware is attached to your existing phone line, then calls to your existing standard telephone number will arrive on the same phone handset that you are using for NodePhone.

What protocols are supported on NodePhone?

NodePhone is a standards based, carrier grade voice handling service.

For call switching, NodePhone uses the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

SIP is a signaling protocol for IP based voice, video and instant messaging services.

The voice data streams use standard RTP IP flows, using standard codecs including G.729a and G.711.