Siltek Telecoms enters wholesale carrier market with Worldcom

Siltek Telecoms, the specialist telecommunications distributor, has acquired distribution rights for Worldcom's value-added range of calling and billing services.

According to Michael Aitken, managing director of Siltek Telecoms, this is a major coup for the South African telecommunications industry as the WorldCom offering is synonymous with low-cost, high-quality call cost offerings. "The Nasdaq-listed company is a provider of integrated voice, Internet and data communications services, as well as facilities-based and fully integrated local, long distance, international and Internet services. By partnering with Worldcom, Siltek Telecoms has an effective and significant entry into the wholesale carrier arena. "

Barry McGuire, director of Worldcom's representative office in South Africa, explains that Worldcom (formerly known as MCI Worldcom) initially appointed US-based SCT as its distributor, who in turn extended the distribution network to establish Siltek Telecoms as the South African distributor for the value-added products line. He is impressed by the distributor's active role in the telecommunications market, consistent with Worldcom's progressive vision for the telecommunications industry in the country.

He testifies to the company's emphasis on service and comments, "Finding partners that similarly strive to evolve the cost-effective, quality-controlled communication in South Africa has been crucial to Worldcom's efforts to offer superior channels of data-flow."

McGuire explains the inherent benefits of the value-add calling services, "The system is based on intelligent and robust hardware that will track the best route to make the call, accounting for speed, reliability, security and cost. The chosen mode is in turn billed to the client, based on the application it has purchased."

"Thus," he continues, "it offers clients the ability to better monitor calls and the cost of the calls per individual or per company." The hardware will decide to use either basic analogue lines or send via satellite or alternative channels of transporting data."

According to Aitken this renders good cost and billing management to companies or individuals. "Furthermore," says Aitken, "a company can put individuals on caller cards that track calls regardless of where they are physically situated. Essentially one is not billed for the physical telephone or number being used, but rather the calls made. This amounts to huge cost advantages and a systematic return on investment." He attributes the cost benefits to Worldcom's global influence that equips it with the ability to negotiate better rates with providers of the channel."

Together Siltek Telecoms and Worldcom will target business with offerings of on-net services, voice services, data services, internet services, messaging services, call centre services, conferencing and paging, business solutions, partnerships and buying programs and international services.

Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and home users will have access to cheaper rates on long distance plans, local toll calling, international calling, calling card services, local services, wireless and PrePaid cards.

According to Mcquire, WorldCom is the second largest long distance carrier in the U.S. and combines financial strength and a depth of resources to pursue the industry's best growth opportunities with an advanced global network built for the data-intensive era of communications. "Furthermore it manages all businesses telecommunications needs from voice, data and Internet solutions to long distance analogue calling and wireless communication at a very competitive price," he confirms.

Some statistics are offered by McGuire, "WorldCom continues to enjoy success in its focus markets. On an annualised basis, data, Internet and international services represent more than $18 billion of annualised revenues growing at 32 percent." He explains that MCI, acquired and renamed by Worldcom, leveraged its own facilities end-to-end, putting Worldcom in an ideal position to offer complementary services like hosting and a full range of web solutions from turn-key to complex, managed services."

"Presently the products being distributed by Siltek Telecoms are approved by the South African Telecommunications Regulations Association (SATRA), and with further developments Worldcom's bid to set up facilities to achieve economical communication systems will also be approved," he speculates.

Aitken and Mcguire agree that this distribution appointment is the first step in offering seamless communication through mobile communication devices, web-enabled channels and analogue communication devices. In line with this, Worldcom recently shifted its focus on being a leading sole provider of telecommunications services to being regarded as a communications provider in the digital and remote age.

Regarding the proposition of the partnership with Siltek Telecoms, Mcguire concludes that Siltek Telecoms and Worldcom's joint intention is to render quality services, giving access to competitively priced methods of communication with sophisticated billing methods.