Interview with Mark Kellett, CEO, Magnet Networks
It must be hard trying to sell hosted VoIP to SMEs in Europe. Which verticals have you found traction in?
Certainly some of the verticals are adopting it much more quickly. Some of the traditional business segments such as legal and accountancy firms are slower due to almost the definition of the style of their business. We have found traction among IT and media companies in particular. Recruitment consultants and travel agencies are also keen on trying VoIP. The overall response has been better than what we had expected. 
What has been your unique selling point in trying to win business away from the incumbent Eircom?
We have a fiber based network. For business customers we offer both fiber and DSL access. In the residential segment we have laid fiber to the home, and we have just started offering 50mbps service. That is winning a lot of business away from the incumbents that are trying to sell their traditional leased line and premise-based PBX services. We also have our own transatlantic fiber infrastructure to support our growth in IP services.
What is the plan for the residential market?
We are focusing on the housing development projects and have over 80% penetration there. We are planning to offer triple play services there including IPTV.
Which vendors are you working with for IPTV and VoIP?
Cisco, Packetfront at the exchange level, Amino and Motorola for STBs, Industria for TV middleware. For VoIP we use Asterisk.
Do you use Asterisk for the hosted environment as well? What else do you utilize the platform for?
Yes, we use it both for premise based solution as well as for hosted business VoIP. We are also looking to build a portal of applications that developers build on top of the open source platforms like Asterisk.
There is no organized program out there in the market for bringing Asterisk developers together and offer an extended platform with a bunch of apps.
We will be doing that part ourselves. I think you will see a lot of service providers trying to do the same.
Service providers in Europe are moving towards open source VoIP. There seems to be some momentum gathering there.
It is the alternative providers mostly. They do not have to worry about legacy PBX installations. So open source is a good option. From the customer’s point of view, they usually get the PBX for free with all its features. They typically pay for just the minutes, whether the PBX is hosted for them or no. That is a very attractive proposition for them.
What do you see happening in the area of SIP trunking?
There is certainly demand coming from the larger customers for SIP trunking.
Do you see Live TV being broadcast over-the-top or is that going to remain confined mostly to the present transportation model including IPTV?
Live TV over the top will be driven by the content owners who would want to diversify their delivery channels and not be restricted just to TV.
