Vox take on Telkom
Vox Telecom today announced the launch of its Cristal Vox service, an all-in-one corporate voice offering from the group’s Vox Orion. This is a development which the company feels marks its debut as a full-service telco.
“The introduction of geographic number ranges for alternative operators means we can offer our enterprise customers a complete menu of inbound and outbound voice services, at lower cost – and they can still have numbers that reflect where they are,” says Vox Orion’s Jacques du Toit.
Previously known mostly for its provision of cellular least-cost routing services, Vox Orion says it can now offer a cost-effective alternative for all outbound voice traffic. “Vox Orion has interconnect agreements with all the large network operators which ensures that whether your call is going to a Telkom number, a Neotel number, a cellular number or anyone else, we can route it in the most cost-effective way,” says Du Toit.
Du Toit added that Vox customers save not only because the company charges lower absolute rates, but also because it bills per second rather than in 30-second or one-minute increments like Telkom.
Vox Orion also delivers a company’s inbound voice traffic, eliminating the need to deal with any other providers, adds Du Toit. “We’re now able to provide geographic numbers like 011 and 021 numbers, which has removed one of the hurdles – customers were not comfortable with 087 numbers. The big remaining hurdle is full geographic number portability, about which we are continuing to put pressure on ICASA.”
Vox Orion currently offers their voice customers a share of the revenues from inbound voice traffic: “Interconnect means other providers pay us to terminate their calls,” he says. “But we’re a low cost operation compared to most of the other operators; we have chosen to pass some of those savings on to our customers.”
Inbound minutes represent approximately 50% of the total minutes. Cristal Vox ensures that a customer receives a benefit on the calls that were previously excluded. The upshot, says Du Toit, is that “corporates who choose Cristal Vox will save across the board, in some cases by up to 70% of their total telecoms bill if you include the share on inbound revenue.”
Vox Telecom versus Telkom – comments and views
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