Internet Solutions' (IS) has signed an interconnect agreement with MTN.
According to IS voice over Internet solutions manager Greg Hatfield, IS has now signed interconnect agreements with all of the country's incumbent mobile and fixed-line telecommunications companies. "We now have live interconnects in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban."
Agreements include MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and Telkom, as well as several VANs such as Storm, Vox and M-Web, he says. "It is a milestone for us in becoming a fully-fledged telecoms company." While the interconnect between MTN and IS has not yet gone live, the company is in the process of testing the solution. "We are currently testing and implementing the solution and are excited about getting it going."
According to Hatfield, the interconnect agreements are standard procedure for service providers worldwide to provide their customers with the fastest, most cost-effective and most direct connections across multiple providers.
"This means the end-user benefits by IS exchanging calls directly with other telecoms providers using local links and agreed interconnection tariffs - critical to providing credible commercial alternatives."
However, Hatfield points out the interconnect route is not the best solution for all customers. "When it comes to interconnect costs, our hands are tied. We have identified a segment of the market that requires more than a simple SIM farm, and this has led us to conclude these agreements."
The interconnect solution offers similar cellular termination quality to using the PSTN, which no SIM-based LCR solution can claim to do, but is still significantly cheaper, he adds.
The company says the demand for the solution has led the company to look into interconnects in the next tier of major cities - Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. "The Pretoria interconnect with Telkom is already under way," says Hatfield.
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