/ By innoTel / Healthcare • NBN Rollout Updates/ 0 Comments

The NBN and HICAPS Terminals

The NBN and HICAPSIf you are a Health Care provider, you’ll no doubt be aware of HICAPS, or the Health Industry Claims and Payments Service. Health Care providers will better know HICAPS as the terminal they used to process their client payments and claims with heath funds. In this post, we discuss the NBN and HICAPS and what you might need to do to get ready before making the switch to NBN.

As with most systems like HICAPS, EFTPOS terminals and other systems like Fax Machines, the NBN may greatly affect your ability to use those systems if they use the telephone network. to communicate.

If your business is thinking about making the move to the National Broadband Network (NBN) and you have a HICAPS terminal, you’ll need to ensure your terminal will work when you switch over to the NBN.

The NBN and HICAPS – why the concern?

Depending on the type of NBN service available to you, once installed you may lose some of your existing communications services including PSTN phone lines. Older HICAPS terminals utilise the standard telephone network, or PSTN in industry speak to process transactions. In some areas, the NBN will be decommissioning the PSTN network leaving some businesses with a decision to make out their phone lines and other technology connected to them.

If your phone services are ISDN lines, then there is no need for immediate concern. Your old terminal will continue to function in this case, however it’s always worth swapping out to a new HICAPS terminal to ensure you have the latest features.

What do I need to do?

There’s no need to be too concerned as it appears HICAPS are on the front-foot and have started to swap out older terminals for units that will support life after the switch to the NBN. You simply need to contact HICAPS and request

You may need to consider other changes with regards to your HICAPS terminal. The HICAPS website contains more information on what you might need to do when changing over to the NBN.

The other advantages of moving to the NBN.

Along with upgrading your HICAPS terminal, moving to the NBN also gives you access to new services that might offer a health care provider greater business efficiency, like a Cloud Phone System or Online Backup service to ensure your business better communicates with your customers and your business is protected from data loss.

innoTel has a great range of cloud communication services that are designed to work over the NBN.

Get in touch to find out more.

 

/ By innoTel / Broadband • Business Continuity • National Broadband Network • Telephone/ 0 Comments

Backup Internet 4G – Keep your business online with mobile data

Backup Internet 4G Router

As a small business owner, you probably don’t realise how reliant you are on your broadband internet connection until it goes down. For whatever reason, technology can fail at times, leaving businesses without internet access. Backup Internet 4G  solutions can help when this situation occurs in your business.

This could affect many of your business’ tools including your phone, email, EFTPOS and other critical communication tools you use in your business.

What would it mean to your business if you;

  • Couldn’t receive incoming phone calls from prospective customers?
  • Couldn’t process transactions with your EFTPOS terminal?
  • Couldn’t read or response to emails?
  • Couldn’t access your online booking system?

For most small businesses, it would be a catastrophic circumstance to be in, however it doesn’t have to happen to your business.

A Backup Internet 4G solution can work in conjunction with your fixed-line broadband connection and provide you with internet access even while your fixed line broadband is unavailable. In most cases, you won’t immediately know when the fixed-line broadband connection is lost as the Backup Internet 4G solution takes over shortly after it notices you don’t have internet access.

For obvious reasons, a Backup Internet 4G solution won’t work when the power is out, unless you have a laptop with sufficient battery life.

Think of a Backup Internet 4G solution as insurance. It often costs very little up-front to introduce a 4G backup solution into your business network with a small ongoing fee for 4G mobile data access. While this adds to your overall communication costs, think about what you would loe if you couldn’t run your business – we bet that would be worth more that what this solution would cost you over 12-months.

Think of a Backup Internet 4G solution it like insurance; when your fixed-line broadband services decides to stop working in most cases you won’t even know.

While it might not happen often, think of how crippled your business would be without a phone and internet service? innoTel make implementing a Backup Internet 4G solution for your business simple and cost effective. We’ll work with you to get the right solution for your business and the right price point.

Speak to innoTel today about our Backup Internet 4G solutions.

/ By innoTel / National Broadband Network • NBN Rollout Updates/ 0 Comments

Moving to the NBN. How late is ‘too late’ & nbn disconnection date.

As the NBN roll-out progresses, we’re seeing more and more areas coming up to their nbn disconnection date where all existing copper phone and broadband services will be disconnected in favor of the new NBN services.

The nbn disconnection dates affect those who have had either a Fibre to the Premise (FTTP), Fibre to the Node (FTTN), Fibre to the Basement (FTTB) or Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial (HFC) and occurs 18-months after an area has had its NBN network installed and is considered Ready for Service (RFS).

We have come across customers who had thought the nbn disconnection date was the date they had to order a new NBN service by, which is isn’t incorrect, but also given some of the complexities around transferring phone numbers from copper to VoIP services, could mean you need to allow more time.

As the old copper based phone services are being replaced by Voice over IP (VoIP) services, in most cases your new NBN provider will need to also transfer your old phone numbers from your copper phone services to a new platform, which requires a process called ‘porting’. Porting, the process of moving phone numbers between networks, can take up to 30-business days in some cases.

Imagine this scenario;

Michelle runs a hairdressers; all of their appointments are made over the phone and they have lots of long term clients who either know the number off the top of their heads or it’s stored in their phones.

Michelle’s shop is located in an area which had the NBN rolled out 17 months ago and the old copper phone and broadband services in the area are being disconnected in a month’s time. Not wanting to lose her phone number because everyone know’s it, she rings Provider X who discusses the appropriate service plans with her and she settles and signs on the dotted line.

It is not until after Michelle places the order that Provider X realises that there is approximately 20-business days before Michelle’s old services will be disconnected and the porting process for her phone numbers can take up to 30-business days.

See the problem? It’s purely mathematical. The 30-business days required for most phone number ports does not fit into the 20-business days before the nbn disconnection date for Michelle’s area.

So what happens? It’s possible that Michelle could lose her phone numbers. The very same phone numbers that everyone knows.

That’s a BIG problem for small businesses…

What can you do to prevent that happening to your business?

NBNCo recommends businesses should leave no more than 12-months before the nbn disconnection date for their area to transfer their services. While 12-months seems a long time out, our advice would be, if you haven’t already moved across when the network was rolled out, is to start considering the move to the NBN around 12-months out from the nbn disconnection date, with a view to making the move with 6 or more months out from the nbn disconnection date.

This leaves ample time to organise the NBN Broadband connection and porting of the phone numbers, with little to no downtime for your business.

Are you coming to your nbn disconnection date? Perhaps it’s time we discussed moving you to the NBN sooner rather than later. Give us a call, send us an email or jump on live chat and see what innoTel can do for your business.

CONTACT US TODAY

/ By innoTel / Uncategorised/ 0 Comments

35 new areas to be disconnected in February (NBN)

NBNCo have been busy over the last few years rolling out the new Broadband network and the time has come for more areas to under-go the mandatory copper disconnection, which occurs approximately 18-months after the network is completed in an area.

The February 2017 list of areas appears to be the largest under-go copper disconnection so far with over 30 areas across Australia to have their old services disconnected. Once again, we’re seeing a high number of business premises in these roll-out areas. Most areas will be disconnected on the 10th of February, while a small number will be disconnected on the 24th of February.

Have you organised to switch to the NBN yet? If you’re a business and you haven’t yet made the switch, time is running out. There’s a lot more to take into account with a business and can take longer to sort through your options and organise. Luckily for you, innoTel are the NBN experts when it comes to businesses and can walk you through the process and provide you with great business NBN services.

NBN FTTP (Fibre to the Premise) services have replaced existing phone and broadband services in these areas, offering super-fast speeds of up-to 100Mbps download and 40Mbps upload. innoTel  as a range of NBN business broadband plans.

The following areas, or parts of, will have their existing copper-based phone and broadband services disconnected (disconnected date in brackets);

  • Liverpool NSW (10/02/2017)
  • Riverstone, Schofields, Marsden Park NSW (10/02/2017)
  • Brinkin, Casuarina, Jingili, Nakara, Alawa NT (10/02/2017)
  • Bundamba, Dinmore, Ebbw Vale, New Chum, Blackstone QLD (10/02/2017)
  • Collingwood Park, Redbank QLD (10/02/2017)
  • Manunda, Cairns North QLD (10/02/2017)
  • Redbank Plains QLD (10/02/2017)
  • Sunnybank Hills, Willawong, Algester QLD (10/02/2017)
  • Para Hills, Ingle Farm SA (10/02/2017)
  • Prospect, Dudley Park SA (10/02/2017)
  • Valley View SA (10/02/2017)
  • Victor Harbor SA (10/02/2017)
  • Howrah, Bellerive TAS (10/02/2017)
  • Huntingfield, Kingston TAS (10/02/2017)
  • Brunswick VIC (10/02/2017)
  • Cranbourne VIC (10/02/2017)
  • Cranbourne West VIC (10/02/2017)
  • Gladstone Park VIC (10/02/2017)
  • Seddon, Kingsville VIC (10/02/2017)
  • Shepparton, Shepparton East, Orrvale VIC (10/02/2017)
  • Ravenswood WA (10/02/2017)
  • South Perth WA (10/02/2017)
  • Queanbeyan East, The Ridgeway, Greenleigh ACT (24/02/2017)
  • Campbelltown, Bradbury NSW (24/02/2017)
  • Mangerton, Mount Saint Thomas, Coniston NSW (24/02/2017)
  • Townsville (parts) QLD (24/02/2017)
  • Medindie Gardens, Nailsworth, Vale Park, Walkerville, Collinswood SA (24/02/2017)
  • Victor Harbor, Encounter Bay SA (24/02/2017)
  • Trevallyn, Riverside TAS (24/02/2017)
  • West Footscray, Tottenham VIC (24/02/2017)

Not all premises in these areas will be disconnected, so you should check to see if you are affected. The check if you’re located in one of these areas, check your address using our NBN Rollout Map.

If you are located in one of these areas, it’s worth getting your connection to the NBN sorted as soon as possible.  innoTel can help you make the transition to the NBN in time and smoothly, with no down-time for your business. Get in contact with us to find out how.