Xnet’s iSoftPhone is being used as part of a launch of a new service called A1 over IP, a new telephony offering coming from Mobilkom Austria.
Xnet has developed the new A1 iSoftPhone for the Mac OS X they say to deliver Carrier-Grade Voice Communications. The Xnet Mac softphone is a worthy rival to Counterpath’s Eyebeam softphone and actually takes better advantage of the Mac OS as the echo cancellation in past trials has exceeded that of the commercially released version of Eyebeam.
Xnet’s A1 iSoftPhone can serve as a primary or secondary phone device for mobile subscribers. It is capable of being used in parallel with any existing mobile phone and can use the same number as the mobile phone.
The A1 iSoftPhone will also access many 2.0 VoIP and messaging (SMS) features provided by the Austrian mobile operator. Since the A1 iSoftPhone is interacting directly with the A1 IMS infrastructure Mobilkom reports that they can begin to offer Unified Communications Services over IP to their customers.
They said about this:
“The IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) has become the glue that will tie the increasingly complex mix of rich services together, with session initiation protocol (SIP) as the standard that underpins it all.
Xnet’s iSoftPhone in combination with IMS enables network operators and service providers to design, develop, and deploy new revenue-generating multimedia services for their subscribers quickly and cost-effectively.
Examples of service creation could include VoIP mashups that enhance popular business and consumer applications such as integration with the Mac Address Book, customer relationship management (CRM) with Daylite or SMS send/receive centre.”
Here are some of the announced features and benefits:
Turns the Mac into a comprehensive communication centre.
Integrated with the existing Address Book.
Same call number as mobile phone.
Call pickup on mobile or desktop phone.
Free Internet Telephony.
Send/Receive SMS with finger speed.
Receiving calls abroad without roaming fees.
A1 Caller-ID and Multi-ring.
A1 Quality&Service
Maybe pal Lee Dryburgh, the eComm organizer, can try it out and let us know how it works as he lives in Austria.
If you want to try out the Xnet Mac Softphone on your own, here’s the link.