Whats Changed since the Original PSTN to Voice over IP Gateway:

"The Gateway" was first fired up in April 2005 and since then has taken 100s of thousands of calls. We're confident this new version will prove to be just as popular. While The Gateway's basic functionality has remained the same we have added a few new features as well as additional routing options. This page will outline some of the changes. Some of the changes you'll notice are:

Voice: Those of you that have all ready called the system will have no doubt noticed straight away that the "voice" has changed. No longer is it "Robot Karen" but a real woman. This was done to try to add a more personal feel to the service as well as adding some flexibility in how we implement call flows.

"#" Key: This may seem trivial but we now accept the "#" key to terminate input strings, or you can just wait the 6 second timeout. This just makes using The Gateway" faster for regular users.

SIP Broker Added: We now support calls to VoIP providers connected via SIP Broker. This is something that has been asked for for some time and it has now been added. Calls can be made using the codes detailed on the SIP Broker site.

Improved Website: OK while not affecting the operation of the gateway this will provide additional benefits over the old "one pager" we've had for years. As well as additional information it will also be used for things like controlling user features. One we are planning to release is a "short code" system. Regular users will be able to set a short code which will dial their access code as well as their number making it easier for callers to reach them. For example rather than dialing *393621354 to contact a user on the FWD network a caller may simply dial 1354 a much easier set of numbers to remember. To test this out try the code 1234 for the Free World Dialup echotest or 1235 for the FreshTel / FireFly welcome message.

We have also made some changes that may not be that obvious but we feel they'll be of benefit none the less:

Redundant Servers: The Gateway now runs on a pair of redundant servers. This means that a fault on one, while impacting on calls connected via that box, will not take the service completely off line.

Gateway now an External Application: The original gateway used a static configuration for it's routing decisions in this new version routing, call flow and prompting is all handled via an external application. This means that we can add our remove providers without having to stop and start each of the servers. It also allows us to add additional functionality in real time.

Hosted Applications: We are now able to support hosted applications for organisations. These may be simple ones like playing a prompt and taking a message to more complex things like conducting a hearing test. If you'd like more information on this feel free to contact us here. The first of these, WIA National News, is online now.

Improved Usage Logging: We have improved the way we collect stats on the gateway. The original left us with a set of CDRs which related only to the final destination of a user. We now collect usage stats for each code entered. This will enable us to better gauge usage levels as well as making fault diagnosis easier.

We hope you enjoy using the new gateway and as always we'd welcome your feedback.