VoIP Monitor - VoIP by Region|Africa

Voxbone Adds DID Service in 50th Country: South Africa

VoIP Monitor — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:23:12 GMT

Voxbone announces availability of its local number service in a 50th country: South Africa. Carriers and large enterprises wanting a local-call presence in South Africa now can purchase direct-inward-dial numbers and origination service through Voxbone, which carries the call over the long international leg via IP, delivering it to the network of the end user.

With this milestone, Voxbone establishes its first offering in Africa, after providing local DID coverage for all European Union and North American nations, as well as many Latin American, Asia Pacific and Middle Eastern countries.

Kenya–Based ISP Wananchi Selected VocalTec's VoIP Solution

VoIP Monitor — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:58:39 GMT

Wananchi has selected VocalTec’s VoIP solutions, as part of its plan to launch the country’s first triple-play service. VocalTec will be providing its core Voice-over-IP solution together with a wide range of supporting applications and prepaid billing solutions. This comprehensive offering will enable Wananchi Group to provide VoIP services to both enterprise and residential users in Kenya and Tanzania, under the SimbaNET and Zuku brands. Using VocalTec's Class-5, Essentra BAX Application Server, Wananchi will be able to offer its subscribers the latest in IP telephony services, including an extensive set of applications. These include voicemail, fax, conferencing and others. The deployment also incorporates VocalTec’s Essentra EX, Peering Manager, and Essentra CX, Media Gateway Controller, which provide complete Class-4 capabilities including secure interconnection between disparate VoIP networks, as well as seamless interconnection to legacy PSTN environments.

Digium and DOW Networks Partner to Serve Latin America, South Africa and the U.S.

VoIP Monitor — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:10:14 GMT

Digium and DOW Networks announce that DOW Networks has become a Digium Solutions Partner. DOW Networks as a key integration partner has used Asterisk, the open source telephony platform created by Digium, for years to create complex solutions for call centers and enterprises. DOW Networks’ products include domestic and international toll-free service, SIP trunks, Asterisk-based IP PBXs, hosted predictive dialer software, toll-free numbers and a complete portfolio of call center solutions.

Digium is the creator and driving force behind Asterisk, the open source voice communications software deployed by millions of servers worldwide to manage VoIP calls for businesses and individuals. More resellers, telecom professionals and software developers choose Digium’s products than those of any other open source telephony company because only Digium delivers the technical superiority, security and flexibility associated with Asterisk. Asterisk powers Digium’s family of software and hardware appliances including AsteriskNOW, Asterisk Business Edition and Switchvox.

DOW Networks provides international communications and enhanced VoIP services and solutions for call centers, hotels, distributed enterprises and small and mid-sized businesses. For call centers, it offers open source solutions built around Asterisk that deliver the features and functionality required by inbound, outbound and blended operations. From offices in the U.S., Costa Rica, Jamaica and South Africa, the company serves customers in more than 50 countries. The company is already a Digium reseller and an expert in Asterisk and the Switchvox IP PBX.

VoIP World Africa 2007 Topics

VoIP Monitor — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 23:47:11 GMT

The Forrester Research Group predicts that nearly 5 million U.S. households will have VoIP phone service by the end of 2006.

With this technology evolution, it has become apparent that the African continent needs to make a change and keep abreast of these technologies for the betterment of African businesses. There is no better place to execute this than at VoIP World Africa 2007 which will take place from 2- 4 May 2007 at The Michelangelo Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the common industry meeting place where new technologies can be discussed, contacts can be made, experiences shared and alliances forged.

Topics to be discussed include:

Outlining the current status of VoIP deployment in Africa and assessing how the VoIP and wireless VoIP market is evolving
Developing an IP telephony strategy
Realising the broader benefits of VoIP and convergence
Converging technologies: A new era for business communications
Success factors in planning VoIP & IP projects
How VoIP & IP networks enable businesses to reengineer key business processes
Next generation communications and customer service excellence
Voice over Broadband – the VoBB revolution

This conference will provide you with quality information as well as an understanding of the latest trends in the IP communications marketplace.

Participate in the revolution of African businesses and join your peers at VoIP World Africa 2007.

For more information go to www.terrapinn.com/2007/voipza

Media Contact:
Lémay Driessel
Marketing Manager
Terrapinn Ltd
(t) +27 11 516 4016
(e) lemay.driessel@terrapinn.co.za

Interconnection to Telkom South Africa

VoIP Monitor — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 16:02:20 GMT

Verso announced that VoxTelecom has expanded its Verso Clarent VoIP solution with an SS7 interconnect system.

The solution is combined with a session border controller for IP-based interconnection to existing Verso softswitching technology located with the incumbent fixed line operator as well as South African mobile operators.

The Verso Clarent BHG 2500 is a scalable and highly reliable universal gateway capable of delivering SS7 signaling, performing as a media gateway with media server capabilities in a space-saving chassis. When combined with the Clarent Class 4 Call Manager, Clarent Class 5 Call Manager, and Clarent Command Center, the BHG 2500 provides a cost-effective platform for building and expanding a robust IP telephony network that ensures a superior ROI.

"It's a significant achievement for us," says Jaco Voigt, managing director of Vox Telecom. "We can now exchange calls directly with Telkom South Africa via local links, resulting in higher-quality VoIP calls for our customers at a very competitive price. This makes VoIP a logical decision for a wide range of enterprise organizations. Additionally, VoxTelecom can now offer its own range of 087 numbers, which means that the range of services we can offer our customers increases tenfold, from caller ID to detailed management information.”

VoxTelecom expects an enormous surge in demand over the next few months, and indicated that the company’s selection by Telkom South Africa emphasizes VoxTelecom's high level of technical capability. "VoIP and traditional telephony are based on completely different technologies. Telkom South Africa’s willingness to interconnect with us is based on their positive assessment of the depth of our technical skills,” Voigt said.

“The agreement between VoxTelecom and Verso will have a significant impact on the uptake of VoIP services in the South African market. The key to success in VoIP throughout the country and even throughout the African region is the seamless interconnection of TDM and VoIP services, which Vox can now provide, enabled by our VoIP applications,” said Terry Sanderson, director of sales, SubSaharan Africa, Verso Technologies.

Amitelo African Rollout and Kick Off Conference

VoIP Monitor — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:05:33 GMT

Subsequent to the Amitelo African Kick off conference held on 22.06.06, attended by the Ministers of African states and presidents of incumbent African telecom companies, the Moroccan Prime Minister, Mr. Driss Jettou and Mr. Hassan Bernoussi Director of External Investment received the Board of Directors of Amitelo AG on Friday 23rd June 2006 for the purposes of the discussion and presentation of the rollout of the VoIP products and services of Amitelo in Morocco and further into other African states.

The policy of the Moroccan Government has been, and continues to be, supportive of other, less commercial, African states and therefore the enablement of VoIP services in manufacturing and service provision in Morocco is a model that can be repeated and further supported by the Government into these states.

The Minister the business presentation of the Amitelo vision for Africa and this encompassed both the social and economic advantages presented by the Moroccan Amitelo VoIP roll out. The presentation demonstrated the Amitelo pilot project now in place to create five thousand new VoIP call shops over the next three years, at a cost of EUR 25'000.00 per call shop, a total project value of over EUR 40 Million per year. The technical planning will be performed by AMITELO'S call shop specialist Median Telekom GmbH's VoIP who currently deployed the 3rd generation call shop solution in Germany and Spain (with Sunline Communications SL, another Group member). The social and economic advantages of this project were discussed at length and an immediate alignment with current Government policy and directives was discovered.

The Prime Minister stated that scheme had been recently launched entitled "Mon Travail", a scheme by which qualifying individuals are able to access grant money from the Government to commence in self-employment, a new concept in Morocco. The grants of up to EUR 25'000 are only accessible for use in Government approved business schemes. As such, the Amitelo call shop franchise scheme is perfectly aligned as a qualifying prospective business for the applicant. The method of access to the grant scheme for the applicant is to undertake two years mandatory education and pass the relevant examinations, at which point the applicant is entitled to select from the dossier of government approved businesses, in which the Amitelo call shop solution would be prominent. As a Government recommended business, Amitelo projects enormous growth and fast roll out for the call shop franchise offering in Morocco.

The Prime Minister stated that Amitelo had indeed arrived at the "bon moment" that is to say, the correct time and that the stated policy of Amitelo was in full alignment with that of the Moroccan Government. The Prime Minister stated "the Government of Morocco is with Amitelo, will support Amitelo and will assist Amitelo in any way possible in its economic growth and social undertakings in Morocco". "The Government is with you" (Amitelo) The Prime Minister stated.

This Governmental support at the highest level will assist greatly in the stated roll out of VoIP services and products of Amitelo in Morocco in 2006 and further into the remainder of the decade. Also the stated financial commitment of the Moroccan Government regarding the assistance of projects in other African states will assist the roll out of Amitelo's vision for Africa in the most expedient manner possible.

AMITELO Strengthens Position In West Africa

VoIP Monitor — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:01:10 GMT

AMITELO Afrique SA., a subsidiary of AMITELO AG., is signing a co-operation agreement with "SOCIETE DES TELECOMMUNICATIONS DU MALI" (Sotelma), the state-owned telephone company in Mali. The aim of the co-operation is to provide the inhabitants of Mali with modern voice over IP (VoIP) and Internet services. For AMITELO Afrique SA., the contract is another milestone in opening up the region of West Africa. AMITELO Afrique is already operating in Senegal, the neighbouring country; a very lucrative project was implemented recently with PAMECAS Mutuel, the state bank of Senegal.

Mali is a country that is of particular importance to AMITELO because of its strategic location. The republic of Mali shares direct borders with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal. The co-operation with Sotelma also includes hubbing operations into the countries neighbouring Mali. Mali acts as an important node in this context, forwarding the incoming voice and data traffic from Europe to the neighbouring countries via the Sotelma network - AMITELO will be supplying the technology.

As a result of the co-operation with Sotelma, AMITELO is opening up a potential sales market in the wholesale field in Mali and the neighbouring countries amounting to more than 115 million people. AMITELO estimates that the monthly sales volume totals over EUR 1 million. Initial sales are to be generated as early as the third quarter of 2006. Network interconnection is already being planned and is to be implemented as soon as possible.

With about 12 million inhabitants and a gross national product of USD 13.56 billion (source: CIA fact book, situation in 2005), Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world - but demand for telecommunications services is increasing steadily even so. In addition to this, the almost four million employees in the country already represent an attractive market for the end-user products supplied by AMITELO.

AMITELO Strides Ahead with VoIP Expansion in Africa

VoIP Monitor — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 21:47:56 GMT

AMITELO Afrique SA., a subsidiary of AMITELO AG, is continuing its successful expansion strategy in Senegal and neighboring countries. Last week saw the start of the installation of the Voice over IP (VoIP) network for Bank PAMECAS Mutuel - AMITELO Afrique was able to successfully implement the plans for modernizing the communication network and is now commencing with the realization of this lucrative project.

With "PAMECAS Mutuel", AMITELO acquired at the end of last year an important financial service provider as customer. Having completed the plans for the network topology and technical equipment with VoIP-enabled technology, the network establishment is now under way. The contract with a longer term of several years concerns the nationwide networking of the bank branches to establish a standard, forward-looking network infrastructure for data and speech communication. The first bank branches have already been successfully linked in the test phase to the new network. For Bank PAMECAS Mutuel, the migration to the VoIP level represents a significant improvement to communication. Until now, the bank had been using its own VPN data network, with speech being settled separately via the state telephone company Sonatel. In future, speech and data will be transported for the bank via one data cable - primarily via the internet.

Advantages for PAMECAS Mutuel: on the economic side, a reduction in communication costs as telephone calls can be made between the branches free of charge. On the productive side, greater efficiency thanks to the new service features, such as conference calls. A very good reference example for the country. The focus of the AMITELO Group lies on VoIP technology and accompanying software solutions which - similar to this project from one source - are supplied by AMITELO Technology SL (Ceuta/Spain). A project of this kind reflects the AMITELO company purpose of establishing communication infrastructure in countries displaying a considerable undersupply.

In addition, AMITELO Afrique SA. has just signed a wholesale contract with "SOCIETE DES TELECOMMUNICATIONS DU MALI" (Sotelma), Mali's state telephone company. Here AMITELO will operate as partner for international speech termination.

With these two contracts, AMITELO will generate operating sales in future in the amount of two digit million EUR per year in the corporate client and wholesale area. AMITELO is continuing its organic growth through the operating growth of the subsidiaries by gaining new customers in the African region.