Local Johannesburg businesses and residents have another option when it comes to their telephone lines and Internet connections after South Africa's newest nationwide telecoms provider appointed a dealer in the suburb.
Hinacom is now a distributor of O-Tel products and services, which means that Johannesburg CBD businesspeople and residents frustrated by the service they receive from the incumbent telecoms operators are able to switch to O-Tel within 24 hours.
"People in this area are tired of incessant cable theft and telecoms outages caused by bad weather. Not only does O-Tel offer rates cheaper than the new fixed line operator its digital telecoms network is much more robust than traditional copper networks," said Jeff Ndlovu, managing director of Hinacom. The company has been operating in Johannesburg for the past three years and is regarded as a stalwart of our business community.
The company promises business and residential subscribers tariffs as affordable as 45 cents (excl VAT) per minute for local calls to Telkom numbers, true per second billing from the first second (international calls are billed per minute), a 24-hour turnaround time, both telephone and Internet connections and nationwide coverage.
O-Tel recently started accepting applications from entrepreneurs interested in becoming part of its dealer network after receiving its individual Electronic Communication Network Services (i-ECNS) licence from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) in late January 2009.
The telco is able to offer a nationwide telecommunications service from day one, because subscribers connect either to the Vodacom 3G network or Telkom's ADSL network to be able to make telephone calls or surf the Internet.
O-Tel supplies subscribers with proprietary wireless routers called O-Boxes designed by the globe's most respected telecoms equipment manufacturers.
Subscribers are then able to purchase their own choice of standard telephone handset to plug into the O-Tel hardware and then make highly affordable voice calls to any telephone in the world with the added advantage of optional Internet access.
The recent awarding of i-ECNS licences by ICASA following last year's Altech court judgment has turned South Africa into one of the world's most competitive telecoms markets overnight. "Unfortunately, few of the almost 533 companies to which licences were awarded will be able to take advantage of their new-found favourable position to challenge the existing telecoms status quo, because many of them have chosen to build their own networks.
Share
