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New true VoIP
service
ADSL
South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 17 May
2007
A division of
DataPro and Vox Telecoms, Vox Direct, plans to
introduce a true VoIP service to the residential South African
telecoms market.
According to Jaco Voight of
DataPro, ‘…they plan to target the ADSL market with the first
true VoIP service that will not use an international operator
to carry calls’ (Vox Direct plans to shake up South Africa VoIP
space, MyADSL, 14 May 2007).
In other words, ADSL users in
South Africa can look forward to a VoIP service that’s truly
South African.
Can the recently launched
VoIP services of iBurst and MWEB be described as ‘true’ VoIP
services?
No.
‘Both MWEB and iBurst recently
launched VoIP services for their subscribers, but these
offerings make use of an international partner like Skype to
terminate calls’ (Vox Direct plans to shake up South Africa
VoIP space, MyADSL, 14 May 2007).
In other words, both iBurst and
MWEB make use of international operators to carry calls and
therefore their VoIP services cannot be described as
‘true.’
So what sets a ‘true’
VoIP service apart from other VoIP
services?
A higher quality of service among
other benefits.
‘Vox Direct’s VoIP solution makes
use of their direct interconnects with all operators –
including Telkom, Vodacom, MTN and CellC - to carry calls which
should result in a higher quality of service’ (Vox Direct plans
to shake up South Africa VoIP space, MyADSL, 14 May
2007).
In other words, direct
interconnects should lead to a higher quality of service while
benefiting local operators such as Telkom, Vodacom and others
in the process.
What about the new
service’s bandwidth efficiency?
The Vox system’s bandwidth
efficiency can be described as at least twice as good as the
bandwidth efficiency of Skype and others.
‘Voight pointed out that their
protocol is around twice as bandwidth efficient as Skype.
Voight said that while Skype requires around 32 Kbps, the Vox
system functions perfectly on 16 Kbps’ (Vox Direct plans to
shake up South Africa VoIP space, MyADSL, 14 May
2007).
In other words, you will
need half the bandwidth to make a call over the Vox
system than over others system such as
Skype.
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