UUNET is to reduce the cost of international voice calls to between 50c and 60c per minute from the 100c to 150c corporates are currently paying.
The local arm of US-based telecommunications group MCI says it will also embark on an aggressive product roll-out in coming months. This will mean the introduction of a private Internet Protocol (IP) and the provision of IP telephony services to the South African corporate market.
Private IP is a dedicated service for corporates, providing a bundled service to any part of the world using the global MCI infrastructure, which has landing points at 840 locations.
"We feel this will be an extremely exciting service for the local market. This was actually developed in SA and has been rolled out through the rest of MCI," says Elia Tsouros, UUNET executive for business development.
[VIDEO]Acting country manager Angela Gahagan says UUNET will leverage more off its connection with MCI.
"It may seem selfish, but whatever belongs to MCI, we consider belongs to us. This includes the portion of the SAT-3 undersea cable owned by MCI as part of the consortium with Telkom," she says.
Tsouros says UUNET has received its new value-added network services licence from the Independent Communications Authority of SA and it was the first to submit its request for its own numbering range.
Gahagan says consumer services will be provided with UUNET`s various partners.
[VIDEO]She adds that the company has sorted out its recent troubles surrounding the retrenchment of a number of staff, including that of former MD Bheki Nkomo - a case that is undergoing arbitration - as part of its restructuring.
"We have bedded down the company and we have made significant infrastructure investments, including the re-training of people and the hiring of people with the relevant skills," she says.
Gahagan says UUNET has increased its investment in infrastructure by a third over the past year. It is getting ready for more market liberalisation and to take advantage of the new opportunities, she notes.
Nomalanga Nkosi, UUNET`s sales and marketing executive, says the company`s African operations will also position it to help bridge the digital divide.
"We are involved in a number of initiatives where we are able to provide infrastructure and services to underserviced areas. However, SA must sort out its legislation in terms of the Convergence Bill, because other African countries will take this as an example of how they should be doing things," she says.
Related stories:
UUNET, former MD in talks
UUNET retrenches
Share