Will iCall survive?

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 19 April 2007

This is the question one may ask because recently launched iCall, iBurst’s own VoIP service, is clearly facing fierce competition from the likes of Skype and other VoIP services.
 
While the iCall service ‘…allows users to make local landline calls for 61c per minute and mobile phone calls at R 1-57 per minute,’ as well as international calls ‘…at greatly reduced prices,’ it’s not enough to win over the local market nor to effectively compete against other VoIP services (iBurst promises superior quality voice service, MyADSL, 12 April 2007). Skype and LowRateVoIP for instance offer much cheaper international calls than iCall.
 
In other words, logic tells us that if the iCall service doesn’t bring something extra to the table, it won’t be able to win over the local market.
 
What will be key to iCall’s survival?
 
Call quality.
 
iBurst said: “Anyone who has ever used Skype knows that under less than totally ideal conditions, call quality is not exactly exceptional and this is mostly because the call is literally being routed halfway across the world. Because the iCall platform ‘sits’ on iBurst’s local network, call quality is drastically improved” (iBurst promises superior quality voice service, MyADSL, 12 April 2007). Also, “Call quality is furthermore improved because iCall uses Internet bandwidth not shared with iBurst’s usual data bandwidth” (iBurst promises superior quality voice service, MyADSL, 12 April 2007).
 
In other words, the call quality of the iCall service will be key to iBurst’s success in the VoIP market.
 
Why the higher international call rates?
 
It seems that higher call quality comes at a higher price.
 
iBurst said: “iBurst has high quality termination for local landline and GSM traffic, something international VoIP operators do not have. iBurst investigated routes to local destinations via cheaper international carriers. However, testing proved that poor quality is coupled with cheap prices” (iBurst promises superior quality voice service, MyADSL, 12 April 2007).
 
In other words, the use of cheaper international carriers are directly linked to poor call quality which is not the case with iCall, that’s why iBurst’s international call rates are higher than that of Skype and others.
 
Any other reason why VoIP users should make use of iCall?
 
Convenience.
 
‘The convenience of paying for a service in Rands and dealing with a local company is another reason which iBurst feels will make their service attractive to local consumers’ (iBurst promises superior quality voice service, MyADSL, 12 April 2007). iBurst said: “iCall subscribers are also able to pay for airtime in local currency which is a huge advantage now that the rand’s rally against the dollar is well and truly over” (iBurst promises superior quality voice service, MyADSL, 12 April 2007).
 
In other words, the convenience iCall offers in terms of paying for their service in Rands and dealing with a local company seems to be another plus point.
 
To come back to the initial question posed above, ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) tends to agree with MyADSL: ‘Only time will tell whether services like iCall from iBurst or Broadband Talk from MWeb will sink or swim in the highly competitive VoIP market’ (iBurst promises superior quality voice service, MyADSL, 12 April 2007).
 
We believe the monthly subscription fee, no matter how high or low, is one component of iCall’s service that will discourage many users to make use of their service.
 
ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) welcomes iBurst’s drive towards superior VoIP call quality.