NEW VOICE OFFERING VoxTelecom - previously known as DataPro - has recently announced the soft launch of their first voice products which will compete directly with Telkom's current voice offerings. Unlike other VoIP offerings in the market - like Skype, Broadband Talk from MWEB or iBurst's iCall - VoxTelecom is interconnecting directly with Telkom, Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Internet Solutions, Verizon Business and others. VoxTelecom points out that this allows for better Quality of Service and more control over the service. Apart from promising savings in the region of 30% over Telkom's voice call rates, users have the option to still use the Telkom service by simply dialing #9. The company is further planning international call packages for South Africans with family in countries like the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand with international call rates for as low as 15c per minute. While cost savings will always be a big draw card in the telecoms space, VoxTelecom is going further by promising their subscribers payment when users from other networks call them. The current plan is for the company to pay their subscribers 20 c per minute for every landline call they receive and 40c per minute for every cellular call they receive. This is a first in the market and while Vox Telecom subscribers will benefit it may cause some other operators to cry foul. SHARING PROFITS Apart from planning more innovative services, VoxTelecom will also embark on a new marketing campaign to advertise their idea of sharing profits with their subscribers. The 'payment for calls received' is one example, but the telecoms provider wants to take the concept of a telecoms community to a whole new level. It is planning to share around half of all profits with its subscribers and resellers, and build a community which will allow for incentives to subscribers and businesses who market their products. This multi-level marketing approach is a first in the South African telecommunications landscape, but has successfully been employed by large international players like MCI and Sprint. VoxTelecom is not limiting its community incentives to profit sharing, but will also launch products like Vox Spree which will give its subscribers significant discounts of on high end products like flat screen TV's, beds or laptops. MASSIVE GROWTH PLANNED VoxTelecom CEO Douglas Reed is confident that this new approach will cause a stir in the market and allow his company to expand at a rapid rate. Reed says that he aims for VoxTelecom to be one of the top 5 telecoms providers in South Africa by the end of 2010, sporting more than 5 million subscribers across all telecoms service offerings. Apart from expanding his company through acquisitions in the ISP and IT space, Reed says that they are also planning to move into the cellular arena by becoming a Mobile Virtual Network Operator similar to Virgin Mobile. Reed said that he is currently discussing potential business opportunities with various companies, including the cellular operators Vodacom, MTN and Cell C. He says that while Vodacom is the best fit for his company, he is exploring all avenues to ensure that VoxTelecom will not be held back by any protracted negotiation process. DataPro (aka VoxTelecom) currently has a market cap of over R 2-Billion. Its share price is currently hovering around R 2.60 per share with the market closely watching any acquisition talks from Vodacom's side. Rumours abound about a potential Vodacom acquisition of Verizon Business SA, DataPro or Storm, but Reed downplays the importance of such an acquisition. He says that his company has R 600-million in cash and in the ever increasing liberated telecoms market there is not too much incentive to sell VoxTelecom at this stage. DataPro has shown a yearly share price growth of over 300%, but with his new products and marketing plan Reed wants to quadruple the current price in the next few years. Judging from his performance over the past year, not many people may be willing to bet against the VoxTeleom CEO achieving his goals.
Contact details:087805 9111help@voxtelecom.co.za
