Wednesday, March 14, 2007

South African Telcos charge for Skype and SMS over their networks, mobile and broadband

VoIP IP Telephony @ http://snapvoip.blogspot.com

According to a post on MyADSK.CO.ZA, Users of Skype and a free SMS (simple messaging service) or otherwise known as text messaging will incur heavy charges, may be even up to 56 times more than regular charges.

“In terms of the current regulatory regime in SA, these tariffs and technologies may not be used to transfer or generate VoIP traffic. Should it be found that VoIP traffic was carried over the MTN network using these tariffs or technologies, MTN reserves the right to cancel the agreement that you have with MTN. You will also be charged retrospectively at R21,93/MB (VAT excluded) for any VoIP traffic transferred by such means.”

MTN customers using its airwaves to conduct free phone calls over Skype or to send text messages using MXit may be hit by huge bills if the operator opts to outlaw the services that are clogging its network and depleting its own revenues.

The cut-price calls and messages are enormously popular with computer users who go online using MTN’s high speed data cards.

Skype lets computer users make international calls through Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. A call to another computer user who has installed Skype is free, and calls can be made from a computer to a land line or cellphone for a small fee.

Likewise, the MXit service developed by Cape Town entrepreneur Herman Heunis lets its 3,27-million users send text messages for a fraction of the price of an SMS.

Neither service soaks up much bandwidth in isolation, but they have become so popular the combined effect is inflicting network overload.

MXit claims its subscribers send 116-million messages every day. That makes a direct dent on the cellular operator’s profits, by giving users a cheaper alternative to SMS. One user was astonished when the bill for his monthly voice and data package soared R1000 because heavy use of Skype and MXit pushed him well above the amount of data traffic he pays for.

A typical MTN package lets users download 1GB of data for R400 a month, which works out at 39c/MB. Users who exceed the limit pay an “out of bundle” data rate of R1,20/MB.

But if MTN decides to invoke the fine print in its contracts, they will pay far more. Anyone caught using Skype or a similar service would be whacked with a charge of R21,93/MB, excluding VAT.

MTN’s small print points out: “In terms of the current regulatory regime in SA, these tariffs and technologies may not be used to transfer or generate VoIP traffic. Should it be found that VoIP traffic was carried over the MTN network using these tariffs or technologies, MTN reserves the right to cancel the agreement that you have with MTN. You will also be charged retrospectively at R21,93/MB (VAT excluded) for any VoIP traffic transferred by such means.”

To read more about this issue, follow the links.

Links;
The MyADSL article.

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