Pacific Internet managing director, Dennis Muscat, said the concept of an SMB VOIP service had been on the table for about six months.

"We asked ourselves how we could enter the VOIP market in a meaningful way," he said. "We went through an evaluation process with several providers."

Nextep Broadband, a division of NEC Australia, has worked with Pacific Internet for the past five years, providing its premium-grade DSL services.

Two services will be rolled out under the new Vocal brand name; Express and Professional.

Express Vocal will be sold as an add-on service to an existing phone system at A$25 per month (US$19) including A$25 of calls. Local calls will cost A$0.10, national calls A$0.09 per minute and fixed to mobile A$0.27 per minute. As an add-on service, it doesn't include an incoming phone number.