has this week announced the launch of its new voice pricing which is set to provide a real alternative to . Targeted at businesses of all sizes that are hungry for real savings and an alternative to the incumbent telcos, the new offering will take effect from 15 December this year. MWEB will offer calls to national exchanges (011, 012, 021, 031 and 051) for less than the cost of a Telkom local call, during both peak and off-peak periods, a first for any telecoms provider.

Andre Joubert, General Manager of MWEB Business, said, “Our new Metro rate means that you can call a Johannesburg number from Cape Town for less than the cost of a local Telkom land line call. In addition, billing is per second, from the first second, which is different to the current Telkom offering of per second billing only after an “initial period” or minimum call charge. MWEB`s peak and off-peak rates to Telkom “Metro” exchanges (011, 012, 021, 031, 051) will cost 39 cents and 18 cents per minute respectively. Telkom`s current local call rates are 43 cents (peak) and 21 cents (off peak), while Telkom national rates are 65 cents and 32 cents per minute respectively. For national calls, this represents a saving of some 40% over Telkom`s pricing.

“As long as the number you are dialling is within 50 km of a major centre, and bears the prefixes above, you will enjoy the cost-saving benefit.”

In addition to cheaper outgoing calls, MWEB will also offer a cheaper termination rate for Telkom numbers, which means that as of 1 January 2010, incoming calls from Telkom land lines to MWEB numbers will cost 30% less. The current rate of R1 per minute in peak times will be reduced by 30% to 70c per minute, and the off-peak rate of 50 cents will drop by 38% to 31c.

This means that anyone calling from a Telkom number to an MWEB number will pay less for these calls, making it an attractive proposition for any business to offer its customers and suppliers. Calls between two MWEB numbers are completely free, which means that companies with more than one branch could be paying nothing for their inter-branch calls.

The reduction in prices is the latest development in the evolution of MWEB`s voice offering. “Using our IP-based interconnect agreements with all the major operators, we are able to offer real cost-saving as well as a full spectrum service to clients. For business customers we can offer every aspect of their voice requirements, from the PABX hardware, to the trunk links to the routing of calls, without the client having to deal with another provider. We offer a single point of call which takes the pain out of provisioning a new voice service.”

MWEB voice customers will also see additional savings on calls to mobile numbers when the new mobile termination rates come into effect in early 2010.



Tags: MWEB