SA users misled with VoIP savings
While the VoIP market is expected to reach a total of 100 000 plus users
within the next three years in SA – there is still an element of confusion regarding the true savings that can be made using IP telephony.
This is according to Pieter Botha, operations director at Skycall, a leading VoIP and data specialist. Botha said while the local VoIP market is “buoyant and growing”, many users are being “mislead in South Africa when it comes to the efficacy of the technology”.
“What we are going to see locally is a lot of consolidation. There are definitely too many players jumping on the VoIP bandwagon – and many think it is a case of simply selling hardware. You have traditional PABX companies eventually moving into this market, thinking they can make the conversion -and thinking they can reap big financial rewards. But it is not that simple.
Even some of the bigger vendors may have to merge, or may be taken over – or may even go to the wall.
But there is certainly going to be growth. It is an exciting market and has been since VoIP was made legal back in 2005,” concluded Botha.
Users misled in South Africa
Botha said thousands of VoIP user’s are under the impression that they were not given the truth about VoIP when they signed on.
“It is common knowledge that there is still animosity in the public view about the use of VoIP. Guaranteed promises of just savings have been made to end users by various dealers and resellers of VoIP services. Prospective users are not being educated about the shortcomings of VoIP and the limitations due to bandwidth restrictions.
“Skycall has, as part of our national roll-out, been training its resellers and branch solution consultants to inform the prospective customer about the benefits and limitations. When done correctly, the customer will appreciate being informed in a situation where the data connection is down, where network problems occur, or geographical interferences such as weather have a negative impact on wireless or 3G connections.”
VoIP in South Africa discussion
Loading ...