Telkom out-Vox'd

[Sneeky]

Imagine a telephone company that pays you money to receive calls -- sound like pie in the sky?

Well then you haven’t heard about Vox Telecom, the new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) tele*phone services, which offer a real, cut-price alternative to Telkom’s fixed-line offering.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=317428&area=/insight/insight__economy__business/

 

[bekdik]

Anyone have a link to their products?

 

[LazyLion]

I checked out the international web site and the local one... and couldn't figure out how to get started on anything. Is this a corporate solution or an end-user product?

 

[bekdik]

I checked out the international web site and the local one... and couldn't figure out how to get started on anything. Is this a corporate solution or an end-user product?

My problem exactly.

 

[swim]

Funny they don't tell you what it will cost to phone a 087 number from Landline or Cell

 

[ColinR]

Funny they don't tell you what it will cost to phone a 087 number from Landline or Cell

They cannot, it depends on where you are calling from, if you mean to call an 087 number from Telkom, you need to ask Telkom that!

The prices were released recently - should be on the Telkom site.

 

[ambo]

I'm very keen to try out their product - it seems to be a great concept. Unfortunately - I've contacted them a number of times and ended up in a sales blackhole. No one there seems terribly interested in following up on revenue generating leads.

I let them know that their site was very confusing and asked from pricing and additional details. Got an email back asking me to refer to the site for details

Since Telskum will not set a foot in my house (i forbid it) I am very keen to get a VoIP service. Telfree has already dropped the ball and left me with a VoIP number that no longer logs in and no one interested in resolving the issue.

Come guys - get you ducks in a row already... or I could just carry on giving all my money to Vodacom and iBurst

 

[qdada]

They need to work on their site. It seems to be merely a web presence with no specific form. They have 2 sales pitches for getting started when u do not have a modem. I cannot see information about those of us who already have ADSL. The other is for a business opportunity that is not clearly defined, perhaps i need to read again.

 

[MURH]

take my advice stay away from anything that datapro offers that is " their unique " product.

i don't know if some of you remember their Unique business adsl uncapped crap solution with a free bsd box on site?

it was suppose to be brilliant but ended up being the crappiest of crap product that ever crapped up on the crappy broad band market in South Africa.

 

[KampfGherkin]

"Wow." <--- That would be my first impression.

But like you guys are seeming to experience, actually wanting to sign up for said Vox product doesn't seem to be as straight forward. (Nothing on the DataPro site about this, bah!)

Another exercise in PR stunts? Seems so. Or maybe just targeted at corporates since they're the only ones who'd be worth the infrastructure costs in a market that has a scandalous 0.5% penetration rate?

 

[rwenzori]

AFAIK they are launching this in about a month.

 

[sgs]

The website (at least the links that work) seem to indicate the start of what could be your typical pyramid marketing scheme. (www.vox.co.za)

 

[bekdik]

Imminent

 

[regardtv]

While I applaud the concept I think the press release was premature:

https://www.vox.co.za/store/ProductPhone.aspx

"Save up to x % on call costs, savings on national, mobile and from x – x % on International."

Looks like this is still a site in the making

 

[ambo]

And why does the whole site have to be https???

Makes it load slower and is really not necessary until you've logged in and are actually shopping.

 

[rpm]

Hi folks

The Vox Direct service will only be launched later this year, but a few test units have been made available which is why these articles are now popping up. I think it is somewhat unfair to slate Vox for not having all the info at hand at this stage as they made it clear that it has not yet been launched.

I think I am partly to blame for this as I assisted the MG with the VoIP articles (I wrote one for them about the service as well) which is why I just wanted to clear up this issue.

BTW: Not a bad service if you use the phone a lot for national and international calls. A thorough review to follow AFTER they launch

Regards,

RPM

 

[ambo]

Hi rpm

I appreciate your thoughts but I think that articles were premature.

I have had knowledge about their plans for many months but once they go to print with even a teaser they are going to be flooded with queries from the type of people who are interested in escaping the current monopoly.

I'm sure that Neotel could tell you stories of the hundreds of forumites that are begging them for services

All my criticisms were intended as constructive and I hope someone from Vox is reading them.

Since they have launched the service 'publically' and it is no longer a closed trial I think that they have to accept public criticism and get on top of it now. Where is their forum rep? No I'm serious!

 

[rwenzori]

The website (at least the links that work) seem to indicate the start of what could be your typical pyramid marketing scheme. (www.vox.co.za)

You're right. How can they go wreck a great concept by turning it into a crappy pyramid scheme.

 

[StrontiumDog]

Not that I've looked at their site or done any math on this, but I don't see how the VOIP service from VOX is going to save anyone any money as long as we still have to pay Telkom for POTS line rental as well as an activation fee and monthly fee to VOX.

All a consumer needs to set up a Vox Telecom VoIP service is an ADSL connection (see sidebar).
Vox Telecom plans to launch its VoIP services officially on October 16 and this service will cost consumers a once-off activation fee of R300 and a monthly fee of R49.

Since the prerequisite is having ADSL, anyone with ADSL has free access to VOIP in the form of Skype and the like anyways, so who needs VOX's VOIP...

And having ADSL means that u have a Telkom landline number that people can call anyways, instead of the more expensive 087 number! So what if u get revenue from receiving calls... u have to fork out first to start making a profit! Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me

Just my 2 cents

 

[ProDataPro]

take my advice stay away from anything that datapro offers that is " their unique " product.

i don't know if some of you remember their Unique business adsl uncapped crap solution with a free bsd box on site?

it was suppose to be brilliant but ended up being the crappiest of crap product that ever crapped up on the crappy broad band market in South Africa.

Good Grief Pal, you certainly hold a grudge for years and years don't you?

Perhaps if you could see the good that came out of that product and the vision behind it. at the time you had no alternative to Capped ADSL...NOTHING!!!!

So DP made an effort to screw the rules and beat the system to provide a service that otherwise was not available. This my friend forced the bigger players at the time to react...

UUnet (now Verizon) launched a service 3 months later in response...their network fell over 3 times.

Storm launched but failed miserably...

Now finally IS has come forward with a solution that is somewhat stable but seems to be fallingover too...


so, my point here is that why do you attack a company's efforts to change telecoms? Why must you do that? 4 years later noggal!!!

If it were not for these "inventors" you'd still be stuck with 512K Capped adsl! Today look at how many choices you have!

If it were not for the "Crappy" attempt by the Wright Brothers at trying to fly an aeroplane, you'd be using boats instead of R199 Kalula flights! Think about it!

Please think before you defame a company in an open forum like this! Especially one whose entire business philosophy is to bring down all telecoms costs...internet and voice calls!

Thank you.