Contact centres can expect to pay between R100 000 to R120 000 per month for a 2MB line to carry their voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) calls overseas and nationally, according to informal discussions at a recent conference.
While contact centre players attending last week`s Cape VOIP conference were upbeat about the expected savings to be offered by VOIP, there was still some uncertainty about actual infrastructure costs and overall quality of service issues.
The conference was hosted by Western Cape contact centre promotion agency CallingtheCape and attended by a number of would-be VOIP suppliers, including Telkom, Storm, Internet Solutions, British Telecom and Gateway Communications.
While the suppliers were reluctant to publicly give definite numbers on what the costs should be once the liberalisation announcement takes effect from today, they agreed telecoms costs should be reduced by about 45% for international traffic and about 30% for national calls.
Between sessions, suppliers and customers jostled informally for the best deals, and costs of between R100 000 to R120 000 a month for a 2MB VOIP line were bandied about, depending on traffic volumes.
The consensus during the discussions was that these VOIP rates should be around 30% cheaper than the equivalent Telkom service. Telkom does not publicise its rates.
Contact centres have been burgeoning in the Western Cape as the province has been identified as a prime position for servicing European markets. It has also been identified as a key employer by the Western Cape government as 11 000 jobs have been created in the sector.
"Telkom have done a sterling job in reducing their rates and the prospect of liberalisation has suddenly woken up key overseas players who are now really interested in doing business in SA," CallingtheCape executive director Luke Mills told ITWeb.
Other points of consensus reached by the suppliers included: price and quality of service are not mutually exclusive, customers have to grow used to the technology in order to trust it, and calls costing around 45c per minute are not cost-effective. Finally, there was general agreement that bundled services would first be quoted in cost per minute increments and then evolve into fixed rate costs.
"Costs should be quoted on a permanent rate, because that is the way Telkom does it," says Storm joint-CEO Tim Wyatt-Gunning.
Mike van den Bergh, MD of Gateway Communications, says the introduction of VOIP and other liberalisation measures in SA is part of the greater liberalisation of telecommunications throughout the African continent.
Telkom`s representative Johan Meyer says his company has not yet introduced a converged voice and data solution, although it is examining its product offerings to the contact centre industry.
"We have already gone some way in meeting the demands of the international call centre industry as we substantially reduced our charges two years ago," he says.
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