Australia’s Telecommunications Industry is going through a period of major change and being ‘On Hold’ is changing with it – Big time.
Back in 1991, Australia opened its telecommunications sector to competition.
What had been a Government-controlled regulatory body was gradually privatised as Telstra, and new Telecommunications Carrier Licences were issued to new players in the market – first Optus, then AAPT, Vodafone, followed by many others.
In 2007, the Australian Government recognised the need for better telecommunications infrastructure and came up with the National Broadband Network (NBN) which was to replace the copper infrastructure that had been in place for decades.
With the advent of the NBN, the old copper network was to be dismantled, causing major disruption to businesses throughout the country by having to update their phone systems to suit the new IP phone standards – VoIP and Cloud.
Most businesses don’t pay much attention to the technology in their phone systems. They have historically paid a large bill to install it, pay ongoing charges for calls to their carrier and consider the costs a part of doing business.
This has meant that the OHM industry in Australia has historically diverged into two business-acquisition models:
The first model has provided the service direct to end-user companies, providing their service on an individual basis to many ongoing revenue streams.
The second model has partnered with equipment distributors and Australian telecommunications carriers, rolling their product into the amortised payments for the equipment, allowing for up-front commission payments and the embedding of revenue streams in the end-users’ telecommunications bill.
With the arrival of the National Broadband Network in Australia replacing the old copper telephone lines, these historic business-acquisition models for On Hold Messaging (OHM) providers are being disrupted. Within a few years, almost all telephone systems in Australia will have to upgrade technology in some way or another to work with the internet from the premises and not over the old copper network.
