Office developer goes large on IP phones

The Queens Road contract is one of three other APBC IP telephony rollouts in Melbourne. APBC had just completed a Stage 1 rollout of 600 end points at a student accommodation building in Bell St, Preston in Melbourne.

For Stage 2, a further 3000 end points would be rolled out at the site, said David Sheridan, general manager, telecommunications at APBC.

By November 2003, a further 700 IP end points are expected to be rolled out at a new development at 480 Collins St in Melbourne. Sheridan expected to use Cisco gear for all three of these IP telephony rollouts. He said one of the major benefits of the IP phones is the XML screens which can integrate tightly with web-based applications.

APBC - a commercial office development company - selected Cisco's IP communications system, based on its architecture for voice, video and integrated data (AVVID) in order to consolidate its entire communications infrastructure into one IP-based network, the company said. Financial details of the rollout were not disclosed.

As part of the new rollout, APBC will also install Cisco's catalyst 6500 and 4000 series switches, Cisco voice gateways and 3000 Cisco 7960 IP phones.

Sheridan said with the Cisco platform, the site at Queens Road in Melbourne will be turned into a telephony hub center based on IP. The company can now offer staff and tenants a range of services which are not possible with traditional PABX systems, he claimed.