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Cheap wireless service unveiled
South Africans will soon have an affordable personalised wireless communication service which will give them an opportunity to make low-cost phone calls and access free voice and text messages even if they do not own handsets. Smile Communications, a new South African-based low-cost telecommunications operator, unveiled an affordable service for the unserved bottom of the pyramid consumers in Gamalakhe, near Port Shepstone, on Monday. The launch was attended by Minister of Communications Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, Ugandan and DRC ministers of communications and members of the national government communications portfolio committee. The members of the portfolio committee were so impressed with the service that they want it to be rolled throughout the country as soon as possible. Addressing scores of people who attended the event, Matsepe-Casaburri said the new telephone service, which mainly targets people living in townships and informal settlements, would result in people paying far less than what they pay for other service providers. For the first time individuals will be offered free electronic identities and voice message boxes, whether they own a handset or not. The company will soon start distributing handsets, which look like normal phones but have screens for people to send and view their messages. Those behind the project say costs of using cellphones are still beyond the reach of more than 500 million people in Africa and the Middle East. The cost of the call to another Smile customer will be 50 cents a minute and people will pay 20 cents for a text message, which can be up to as many as 1 000 characters. They pay 80 cents per minute to other providers. Customers will operate without mobile sets as agents will provide devices to make calls and retrieve messages. Smile agents will own and operate payphones in shops, stalls and street kiosks and sell airtime to customers. The customers' names will be put in the system and they will be given numbers and pin codes that they will use to login to any phone to retrieve messages and voice messages. "We now have a service that will cater for poor people. Other service providers fail to provide service for people because they are concerned with satisfying their shareholders," Matsepe-Casaburri said. Shareholders of the company are a consortium of Saudi Arabian investors and South Africa's Irene Charnley, Paul Savage and Sharron Vanessa Naidoo. Charnley, who is also Smile's CEO, said once operations were rolled out throughout the country, 30 000 jobs would be created.
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