Get your VOIP phone here

By Damian Clarkson, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 27 Jan 2005

South Africans can now get their hands on a cordless voice over IP (VOIP) phone, following the local launch of the Olympia Dualphone.

Expected to retail at R1 300, the phone can be connected to a telephone socket and a USB port on a PC, and functions as both a traditional and VOIP handset, says Rob Gilmour, director of local Olympia distributor Even Flow Trade.

"The display on the phone shows whether your contacts are online. If they are, you press the appropriate button and talk to them for free using Skype, no matter where they are in the world."

Skype is a free peer-to-peer telephony company with over nine million registered users internationally. According to Even Flow Trade CEO Adrian Bush, calls between Skype users are free, which will be attractive to local users who want to avoid Telkom rates for calls. "If you want to make an international call to someone who doesn`t use Skype, it is possible to do so for as cheap as 13 cents a minute, which is a reduced rate of over 400% compared to a call to the same country at standard telephone rates."

If the person phoned has his PC switched off, or if the user wants to call someone who doesn`t use Skype, the phone`s standard telephone connection can be used. Gilmour says this feature makes it ideal for a market that may be cautious to try the new VOIP alternative in telecommunications.

With VOIP to be legalised from next week, Gilmour says the Dualphone launch was deliberately timed to catch the first phase of local VOIP adopters. "We saw a huge opportunity with the market opening up," he says.

"This phone is brand new - it has only been available overseas for about a month, and we just got our hands on it 10 days ago."

In terms of target market, Gilmour predicts small to medium enterprises and private users will be most interested. "We think there is real potential in these markets - we are looking to sell 3 000 in a year - as they will be looking to take advantage of its cost-efficiency.

"It is not a corporate product as such, as I think the larger guys will go for a more robust solution."

Gilmour says this is the first cordless VOIP phone available in the country, but adds that the market is likely to see a number of new offerings in the near future.

"At the moment there are only about three Skype phones available worldwide. I expect to see a lot more products coming. The time it takes to get here will be the interesting part."

The Dualphone is available at certain resellers in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and further deals are in the pipeline, he adds.