8ta debuts uncapped voice calls

Prices start at R1 199/month on a 24-month contract. By Duncan McLeod.

Added by Duncan McLeod on 25 October 2012.
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Amith Maharaj

Telkom’s mobile arm, 8ta, has introduced unlimited voice calls for a fixed monthly price starting at R1 199/month in an effort to tap the top-end of the contract market where users spend thousands of rand a month on their telecommunications needs.

The unlimited calls are applicable to all national networks in SA, including 8ta, Telkom, Neotel, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C.

The new offer, which is available only on a 24-month contract, offers a Sim-only unlimited option for R1 199/month and a Sim and phone offer for R1 499/month, which includes a Samsung Galaxy S3 in the price. Other handsets may be added at a later date.

The offer is available for a limited period, though 8ta won’t say when it plans to end the promotion. Anyone who signs up for the package will enjoy it for the full 24-month period, even if the offer is withdrawn from the market.

Although no fair-use policy applies to the new product, 8ta senior managing executive Amith Maharaj warns that it may not be used in least-cost routers or payphones. “Guys will abuse this in ways we don’t expect them to, so we had to ensure our billing systems could detect fraudulent use,” he says. “At the onset, we had a real-time billing system for prepaid and post-paid data.”

The unlimited package is available not only on 8ta’s own network but also on the network of its roaming partner, MTN, meaning national coverage is available, Maharaj says, adding he expects small business users who spend thousands of rand a month on their phone bills to be enticed by the offering.

“Globally, this has been done in some markets already,” he says. “It hasn’t been done in SA before.”  — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media

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  • Matthew Bentley

    It’s certainly a step in the right direction. I recently visited the USA where I purchased a prepaid package on T- Mobile for $60. This was valid for 30 days and included unlimited talk, text and data (First 2GB at 4G).
    I look forwrard to the knee-jerk reactions from the other networks.

  • http://twitter.com/TsipaA Gomi A. Thobejane

    This won’t last. It would be very costly for 8ta to maintain this deal. With uncapped data you can make quite some money, but with uncapped voice you pray and hope that customers don’t use the service. If customers over-use the service you lose, particularly for a small player like 8ta who still has to pay interconnect costs to big players. With the rest of capped voice deals, you pray that customers over-use the service so you can first recoup the costs and then make profit.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=527737873 Vusi Sibiya

    I’d have to disagree with your assertion. The general trend by consumers is more towards data consumption and with smartphones & feature phones that have social media apps that allow for text/chat communication people are not spending much time on voice calls. The age of hours spent on a voice call is history and this seems rather pricey when there are VoiP networks that can offer voice calls to all international destinations as well for less.

  • http://twitter.com/Livewired Rav Mistri

    Not to mention included in that $60 is unlimited international txt, and international landline calls…

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