iBurst eyes SME sector

Johannesburg, 20 Jul 2009

Telecommunications operator iBurst has unveiled its iBurst Business division to the local market.

Newly-appointed CEO Jannie van Zyl says: “We have been seen as a consumer business only. But we are more than just that. With the launch of iBurst Business, we will now be looking at the forgotten 500 000 small and medium enterprise (SME) businesses that need business-focused telecoms solutions.”

iBurst has been steadily gearing itself to provide a range of products to the small business sector over the last few months. Steve Briggs, commercial head of iBurst Business, says it will focus on the SME sector, which the larger telcos have not fully supported.

Van Zyl adds that the focus of the major telecoms companies usually falls on the consumer segment or large corporate segment, with the SME sector being left behind. SMEs wanting to sign up for iBurst's services in the past had to sign up as consumers.

“We kicked off the business service in earnest in February this year to supply data and voice solutions via fixed and wireless connections to smaller businesses,” he adds.

The company says it will offer SME customers several free services, including consultations to assess what a company's real business requirements are, full support of a dedicated account manager, and access to a 24/7 helpdesk.

New iBurst MD Ian Halliday says the helpdesk will offer more dedicated and a higher level tech support to SME business clients.

iBurst says it has signed up around 300 clients since February, although it still faces the large task of poaching customers from the incumbents. Number portability seems to be the largest hurdle it will face in gaining a customer base for its new unit.

According to Michelle McCann - iBurst Business head of product development, regulations and infrastructure - in terms of porting, there are still barriers to overcome.

Geographic number portability was gazetted in May by the Independent Communications Authority of SA.

However, the regulator says it will take a phased approach to releasing numbers. It started by releasing blocks of 1 000 and 10 000 numbers, for enterprise customers, and consumer blocks, which include the SME, will need to be released by the regulator before March next year.