Talk for less
VoIP has been hyped to death. Given that it’s been around as a concept for well over a decade and has been in-market in various guises for at least 5 years, it is today quite possible and indeed correct to make use of it. How, you ask?
Arguably, best and easiest is Skype. If you haven’t already, download the programme from www.skype.com, install and use. Many, many businesspeople already have a Skype address on their signatures. It’s time you got one too. You can pretty much use Skype as you choose – you can buy credits to ‘skype-out’ (make calls to ‘regular’ phone numbers) or you can make free Skype to Skype calls.
There’s plenty more though. Glacial it may be, but progress is being made in the SA telecoms environment. As a result of regulatory relaxations, today you can choose from a range of service providers, albeit that most are still in some way dependent upon (read retarded by) Telkom.
However, as a result of that progress, there are offerings like the Vox ADSL Phone, MWEB Broadband Talk and iBurst iCall now available.
Vox’s ADSL phone requires that you have an ADSL line and some bandwidth available. You rent (R49/month, ‘set up’ fee of R300) a device from them which works like a normal phone, but uses the ADSL connection. Savings of ‘up to 30%’ are possible on outgoing calls while you can buy international calls for 15c a minute – be warned, though, this price applies to ‘bundles’. Interestingly, you can join the Great South African Telecoms Rip-Off by earning rebates when your friends and colleagues call you on your VoIP 087-number. www.vox.co.za
MWeb’s Broadband Talk has the advantage of a less-complex tariff plan. It publishes exactly what you pay (a decided rarity). So, it says with its offering you will pay 60c per minute, including VAT, for calls to a select number of popular countries. Peak-time calls to South African cellular numbers cost R1.45 per minute, and off-peak calls cost R1.09 per minute. All billing is per-second. That is counteracted with limited info on what you need – and what you will have to pay for additional equipment. www.mweb.co.za
Then there is iBurst’s iCall. The service operates on the iBurst wireless network, which the company pitches as an alternative to a standard landline (which is perhaps a nod to the fact that iBurst connectivity is not always ‘fast’ enough to support a VoIP call).
You’ll pay a subscription fee of R50 per month which gives you free calls to all iCall subscribers and an iBurst telephone number. iCall Vouchers are available in denominations of R100 or R200 and can be used to make any sort of call. Savings of ‘up to’ 50% are possible. Check out http://www.iburst.co.za/default.aspx?link=account_icall; iBurst offers a WebFone for nearly R3000 which allows you to use iCall like a normal phone.
A caveat: Renting is a good idea as VoIP is (remarkably?) still a nascent concept. Buying gear will mean its likely obsolescence in a matter of months. It is also well worth checking out www.hellopeter.com and scanning for complaints and problems experienced before buying almost anything.
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