[ Johannesburg, 23 July 2007 ] – ECN a leading provider of converged voice and data solutions, is the first electronic communications services provider in the market to establish bi-lateral interconnects with Telkom, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C.
Until now business and residential fixed-line telephone subscribers have had no choice other than Telkom. With carrier grade bi-lateral interconnects to all the SA networks now in-place, ECN is in a unique position to offer its business and residential subscribers an alternative fixed-line telephone service to Telkom.
ECN’s is able to issue its subscribers with 087-based non-geographic numbers, which can be moved around South Africa with the company or individual and unlike location based geographic numbers, ECN’s subscribers will never have to change the number they provide to contacts or customers.
ECN also provides its subscribers with a range of value added services including on-line billing, enhanced fax, voicemail, multi-party conferencing, fax-2-email, email-2-fax, call blocking, call forwarding, call recording and time of day routing/screening.
John Holdsworth, CEO of ECN says: “Fixed-line telephone services in South Africa are priced according to the maximum possible return that can be extracted, rather than the maximum possible value that can be provided. ECN’s strategy is to favour volume over margin and provide our customers with top quality voice services at discounted prices.”
However, Holdsworth is keen to point out that real customer value is much more than just a cheap telephone call and plans to maximise the lifetime value of ECN’s customers by combining competitive pricing with meaningful innovation and high levels of customer care that establish unique brand value and encourage repeat business.
In spite of the significance of the moment, Holdsworth cautions against complacency and says, “The recent regulatory changes are starting to transform the competitive landscape and ECN is one of the first new entrants to fully embrace the opportunity. However it is only when ICASA finally introduces cost based pricing, carrier pre-select and fixed-line number portability that we will be able to mount a truly effective challenge to Telkom’s monopoly.”
Holdsworth, says: “Providing the Regulator acts quickly and decisively our next generation technology and deployment model will enable us to rapidly replace legacy TDM infrastructure with a carrier grade next generation IP-based solution that can scale to support millions of customers now and into the future.”