Remote working is here to stay, and it’s become clear that providing your clients with IP telephony and desk phones is no longer enough to make them happy. Today, you need to help them communicate via their PBX extensions and access their clients and colleagues, accept hunt group calls – even when they’re out of the office. Your customers are demanding a tool that’s flexible and easy to use from anywhere – and PortaPhone is exactly that tool.
PortaPhone enables voice and video calls via a user’s PBX extension from a web browser, mobile device, or MS Teams client. With all that capability, your customers don’t need desk phones to use their office telephony anymore – allowing them to save big on equipment. Plus, you can start providing service to new users immediately, with no need to wait for their IP devices to be delivered and provisioned.
PortaPhone allows you to:
- Seamlessly extend your customers’ cloud PBX to web, mobile, and MS Teams
- Integrate with back-office systems for self-care and self-management capabilities
- Bundle in custom offers and promotions
PortaPhone is available in three versions, each with its own simple, easy-to-use interface:
PortaPhone Web (available now): This web dialer supports most regular IP phone features, like audio/video calls, call recording, call hold and transfer, voice calls to external landlines/mobile phones/international numbers, and more – all accessed via a web browser. Because it uses WebRTC, PortaPhone Web will work on networks behind any router or firewall, plus it is supported by all major browsers. WebRTC also provides better sound quality than traditional VoIP calls on a slow or congested Internet connection. And don’t forget that you can embed a WebRTС module into any website or custom application.
PortaPhone MS Teams app (available very soon via the Microsoft store): This is the perfect first step for launching your service into MS Teams. Users can use their PortaSwitch-based cloud PBX number and communicate with colleagues and external mobile and landline numbers right from MS Teams. And they don’t even need to sign up for expensive Microsoft Office365 licenses to use it! The app supports the standard set of PBX features (call transfer, call recording, and corporate directory). Do your customers require more flexibility? Simply upsell them with direct-routing MS Teams integration.
PortaPhone Mobile (MVP will be available by the end of September): Version one of this app for iOS/Android will support audio/video calls and push notifications – stay tuned for more features and updates!
PortaPhone is delivered via PortaOne Add-on Mart – so you don’t need any additional hardware to start offering it to your customers. Deployment – via a cloud Kubernetes cluster – takes just a few hours. There is a possibility to build a branded version (name, logo, colors, etc.) or include into the app customized web pages (maintained by third-party developers) to provide a specialized signup procedure or special offers. The tool is pre-integrated with PortaSwitch, so a user does not have to do any manual provisioning (such as typing a password or SIP server address). They log in using their phone number and a one-time password sent to their email address. All subsequent activity is linked to their account in the existing PortaSIP cloud PBX. PortaPhone is available with PortaSwitch MR75 or higher.
Q&A highlights
Q: How many video calls can be supported simultaneously?
A: For the cloud deployment a standard deployment allows up to 200 concurrent video calls, and high-performance configuration to handle more load is available on-demand. For deployments in your own datacenter – it is mainly network and CPU that determine how many simultaneous calls will be supported. For up to 200 simultaneous video calls you’ll need:
- A last generation Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC with 6+ CPU cores
- RAM: 16+ GB
- HDD: 2+ ТB
- Network speed: about 1 Gbps in both directions.
In general, an HD-quality video call requires about 2,5 Mbps, and an average call quality takes about 1-1,5 Mbps.
Q: What devices support video calls from PortaPhone?
A: You can use any device that supports the same codecs as PortaPhone. At the moment, these are Opus and G711 for audio stream (or any other PortaSwitch supported audio codec) and video codecs h264, vp8, vp9, av1.
Q: Does PortaPhone support messaging or SMS?
A: Not in the current version. Messaging support is in our roadmap, however, and we are currently looking for the best solution.
Q: Is there a limit to the number of calls or subscribers in the pricing plan?
A: No. The monthly subscription fee for PortaPhone includes cloud deployment and technical support – with no limit to the number of subscribers. For details or specific questions, please reach out to us.
Q: Can I use PortaPhone if I have an on-premise installation of PortaSwitch?
A: Yes. The fastest and easiest way to get PortaPhone up and running is with a cloud deployment of PortaSwitch, since we can automate the delivery. But if you have an on-premise installation, our support team can deploy and configure an additional virtual machine or hardware on your end to simulate a cloud container environment – the process takes a little longer, but it is still fairly simple. This additional server should be added to your existing PortaCare contract. Please get in touch if you have any questions on the sizing of that virtual machine or the cloud resources on your end – we are here to help!
Q: I heard about a PortaPhone app a few years ago. Is this the same thing?
A: No, it’s not. The “old” PortaPhone app that has been available for a few years is powered by Acrobits. We decided to create our own application because we wanted to give you more flexibility than we were able to provide with Acrobits. The new PortaPhone was developed by one of our fully-owned subsidiaries – so we have complete control over the app and are open to any discussion on new options and updates. Please feel free to contact us!
