Ozonetel offers virtual PBX for start-ups

Ozonetel Systems, a Hyderabad-headquartered cloud telephony services firm, has launched a virtual PBX system that does away with the need for on-site equipment and wiring of a conventional PBX system as well as the need for a separate PBX for different offices of a company.

According to CSN Murthy, director, Ozonetel Systems, the system is mainly targeted at start-ups that have not already invested in a telecom system and at small and medium enterprises (SMEs), for whom affordability is a factor.

He said it works as a ‘plug-and-play’ system based on cloud (ie, hosted in remote data centres) with no equipment on the user’s premises, and offers scalability and convenience.

“We will provide fixed wireless phones to the client, for which we have tie-ups with telecom operators. Say you want three connections, 10 extensions and a PBX. I provision my data centre accordingly and give you the numbers, say, ‘1’ for sales, ‘2’ for operations, and so on, the way you want,” he said.

With this, companies having multiple offices would not need to install a separate PBX at each of their office premises. Instead, it allows them to scale up to any number of extensions on the basis of a single pan-India telephone number, Murthy said.

The charges are Rs 2,000 per port, with each port allowing five extensions ideally, but extendable depending on the usage, Murthy said. It also offers value-added features such as an interactive voice response system and distributed call centre.

The service has close to 30 subscribers at present, most of them based around Chennai and Bangalore. They include white goods maker IFB, e-commerce firm ZipDial and microfinance firm Basix. Murthy said there have been enquiries from Bangladesh and some Caribbean countries for the PBX product.

Ozonetel is also in talks to livecast the proceedings of the INK (Innovation+Knowledge) technology forum. The service would allow anyone to call a specified number and listen to the conference proceedings live.