Telnyx vs. Optus: An in-depth VoIP Comparison

We’re heading back down under with another comparison guide that will (hopefully) help you to choose the right voice provider for your business. In the spotlight this week is Optus, a telecommunications company operating primarily in Australia. Optus offer a range of services to users including mobile plans, home internet and VoIP services. Here, we’ll be focusing on their VoIP offering for enterprises and will see how they compare with Telnyx, especially on network, quality and price.

Although they’ve been around for a while, Optus have tried to redesign their cable network to specifically provide telephony services to Australians. However, with the rollout of the National Broadband Network (nbn) Optus, like Telstra and Vodafone, now utilize the nbn for their business and enterprise grade products.

So what makes them different? Optus offer VoIP services to businesses through two products- Optus Loop and Optus Evolve Voice. Optus Loop allows customers to have a scalable phone system with a suite of customer management and team collaboration features, all without needing transitional phone infrastructure. Optus Evolve Voice is an enterprise-grade SIP trunk service providing flxible, scalable and reliable telephony for your IP PBX.

While Optus may have diversified their network to accommodate for newer VoIP technology and services, we should keep in mind that the Telnyx network was built with real-time communications in mind from day one. But how does that translate to a superior voice service? Let’s take a look...

Network: Telnyx vs Optus

The key to crystal clear calling and true real-time communications is a great network. But what makes a great network? A network that has global points of presence and is private will ensure you and your customers have the best experience. That’s why at Telnyx, we built our own global, private IP network. When you use Telnyx, we pull your media off the public web and carry it across our own fiber. This ensures your packets are exposed to as few public hops as possible, reducing the overhead transmission that diminishes call quality. And since your media is not competing with other media over a busy public network, there is reduced latency and every call is crystal clear.

The Telnyx global, private network

Now let’s take a look at the Optus network in Australia. Like most of Australia’s telecommunication companies, the rollout of the nbn has had an effect on the Optus networks. As a result, Optus run their VoIP services for businesses over the nbn, through their EoNBN product. As we’ve seen with Telstra and Vodafone, this public network is subject to congestion- especially at peak times- which can diminish call quality and speed.

Bottom line, network quality affects your customer service. Thankfully with Telnyx, it won’t cost you to provide crystal-clear calls to all your customers, let’s take a look at pricing next.

Price: Telnyx vs Optus

Voice

Optus have made their pricing a little difficult to understand, so we’ve tried our best to make sense of it here. Like many large telcos, they have a more antiquated view of billing and require a minimum monthly payment and will limit your number of connections.

Optus offers Premium and Basic Plans to businesses using Optus Loop. The Basic plan starts are $25/ month per user over a 24 month period. This totals to a minimum of payment of $600 per user over 24 months. If you want the Premium plan (which if you want all the features of a UCaaS platform then you do), it’ll set you back $50/ month per user over 24 months. That’s a minimum total cost of $1200 per user over 24 months.

The Optus Evolve Voice pricing is more expensive than Telnyx for outbound voice:

Pricing difference for Outbound Voice Calls. Optus Evolve vs. Telnyx (AUD)

On top of the Optus Evolve rates outlined above, you’ll pay a monthly service charge of at least $28 per active channel. In addition if you want to cancel your service before the end of the committed term (which is at least 12 months in most cases) then you’ll be subject to a Cancellation Fee:

The Optus billing method may work for some companies but it doesn’t leave much room for changes in number of connections or demand. We believe it’s not suitable for businesses in 2020. If we have learned anything this year, it’s that anything can happen, and the last thing your business needs is to be paying for unused services, like SIP trunks.

With this in mind, Telnyx offers SIP Trunks on a ‘pay as you go’ service until you are ready to move to a managed account.

We pride ourselves on delivering a great VoIP product that can’t be beaten on price. That’s why we don’t require a minimum monthly sign-up or limit your number of connections per account. We understand that in today’s world, nothing is certain. Consumer demand can fluctuate, and you should be able to respond in a dynamic, cost-effective manner. What’s more, all our pricing is available in one global rate deck, so you know what you’ll be paying.

Features: Telnyx vs Optus

In terms of features, Optus Evolve Voice, Optus Loop Premium and Telnyx are all pretty consistent in terms of features offered. Let's take a closer look:

† Optus Loop Premium and Optus Evolve Voice. Optus Loop basic plan is suitable for use with analgoue phones and fax machines only.

As you can see from the table, Optus delivers all the standard Voice features that you would expect from an incumbent provider. Telnyx on the other hand, have developed features that will allow you to build customized voice experiences into your applications. We believe features like automated remote call recovery, automated porting and real-time usage monitoring are now as important as the stand voice features.

Support: Telnyx vs Optus

Optus offers 24/7 support for all it’s customers, however they have outsourced this support. And that’s OK, in a company as big as Optus it usually makes financial sense to do so. However, when this happens, it means that when you need support, you are one further step away from the people that built the product, and know how to help. While the majority of issues will get resolved, it will probably take more time to do so, leading to frustration and potentially further downtime.

At Telnyx, we know the quickest way to get your issues resolved is by having a support team onhand 24/7/365. What’s more, we’ve built our network and developed our products from the ground up and our support team have been a part of the process since day one. Our team knows our network inside out, meaning you won’t have to wait on support when you need it the most.

Developers

The final key to a great voice product is it’s usability. A Voice API that is difficult to integrate into your business will eat up time and money, which is why we’ve invested a lot of time in our Mission Control Portal to make it as intuitive as possible. From the Telnyx portal, you’ll be able to manage all your numbers, porting requests and SIP connections, giving you complete control of configurability. If that sounds a little complicated don’t worry, we also have a dedicated developer site where our docs will help making the move to Telnyx’s API as seamless as possible. SIP Configuration guides, tutorials and quickstarts are all readily available in our developer center so you can spend less time troubleshooting and more time building.

The Telnyx Developer Center where you'll find all the documents you'll need to set up your Telnyx account

We also run a developer Slack channel where you can ask our engineers for assistance or get some inspiration from other developers who are using Telnyx to build a host of great products, all around the world.

While Optus also has a developer portal, it’s hidden behind a paywall, making it harder to take a look at and test their SDKs and tutorials. In general, Optus was not built by developers, so don’t be expecting a bundle of developer documentation and easy integration guides.

What’s more, we’re pretty confident that Unified Communications is the future. While your business may not be ready for that yet, we are. When you’re ready to take the next step, Telnyx has an ever-growing range of products- such as numbering, programmable SMS, fax, and wireless- that you can easily implement into your business when the time is right.

If you're ready to try Telnyx SIP Trunking, get in touch with our sales team or set up a self-service account in the Mission Control Portal.