Unisys Africa has completed an upgrade of the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) value-added services platform to cater for the fast growth of the Telco`s prepaid service. Craig Freer, Marketing Executive at Unisys Africa, says that the system currently caters for around 2,3 million calls a month, and generates revenues of around 2,3 million Rand a month for, BTC.
Freer says Unisys installed its proprietary communications applications platform at BTC in 1999 and the system went live in November 2000. Stronger than anticipated adoption of the service prompted BTC to commission Unisys to upgrade the platform to handle nearly 200 000 calls a day.
BTC`s prepaid product - called Scratch n` Dial - allows users to purchase cards in denominations of P20, P40 or P100 from general dealers, post offices, and BTC offices around the country, and achieved over 93% of 5-year growth forecasts in the first 12-months of launch.
Each Scratch n` Dial card has a number at the back which remains hidden until the user scratches the covering foil to reveal it. The caller connects to the platform through an access number, and follows a series of automated voice prompts to enter the prepaid card number and the number he or she wishes to dial. The cost of the call is automatically deducted from the Prepaid card balance.
Says Freer: "One of the major advantages of this system is that it allows users to make prepaid calls from any BTC telephone within the borders of Botswana, including card and coin public phones, company phones, home phones and phones of friends and family.
"This means that the card gives callers an easy and convenient way to stay connected wherever they are."
Freer says that users that have adopted the prepaid product include small and medium-sized companies looking to control telephone costs by giving staff cards; home users who have opted for an in-bound only service; homes where a number of users are sharing a single line; and customers that do not meet BTC`s criteria for credit-worthiness.
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