Data and voice network provider iBurst has launched a new range of low-cost product offerings to draw in new clients and to improve access to, and the affordability of, its data and voice products, iBurst commercial executive head Malcolm Turnbull reports.

The company was promoting a flagship 20 Gb/m package for R198/m, with 10 Gb for any time use and 10 Gb available between midnight and 8 am.

Its new low-cost offerings were aimed at improving its market position and were focused on existing and potential customers. The company expected to grow its subscriber base by around 20% through these new products.

The company has around 170 km of self-owned fibre-optic network in Gauteng and aims to get clients to broaden their use of its network to include data and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP).

All its new product bundles include a starter VoIP service, which enables users to download a Session Initiation Protocol client and then make calls over iBurst’s network. iBurst to iBurst calls cost nothing but draws from the users’ data bundle cap. Calls to other networks are cheaper and can save customers a consider- able amount.

The offerings were not time-bound special offerings but formed its new standard offerings, Turnbull explained.

“We are part of Wireless Business Solutions, which has access to a large spectrum, and we can use this to leverage off our other products, including the fact that we have a 1 800 MHz network and we can roll out a long-term evolution (LTE) network.

“We will be launching several new products in the next few months and have launched an advertising campaign to raise awareness. These offerings are consumer driven and we will then start with a drive around some of our business products soon,” said Turnbull.

iBurst group product manager Zahir Khan noted that iBurst’s subscriber base and business clients had been demanding a good uncapped offering, which led to iBurst launching two uncapped offerings for private and business clients.

Both include VoIP starter packages, to familiarise customers with the VoIP system, and include modems with 24-month contracts. Connection speed is shaped to 246 kbps after a per use cap of 1 Gb/d and 3 Gb/d for the two different offerings, but the company has also launched a R99 booster package that all customers can use to access unshaped connection speeds over a 24-hour period that will not draw from their data cap, he said.

“We have become quite aggressive with the pricing of our products. We have a fully fledged network and this creates a high quality of voice transfer. Businesses have the option to add further voice capabilities to these offerings,” said Turnbull.

“We can save customers about 48% of the cost of their current voice connections when using selected smartphones, with the costs only including data used.”

iBurst was still focused on the major metropolitan areas of South Africa, but was increasing its coverage, specifically working with government to connect the information technology laboratories of schools in disadvantaged areas to the Internet, said Turnbull.

Existing customers of iBurst have the option to migrate to the new offerings but the company was not forcibly migrating its existing customer base.

Further, iBurst had internalised its contact centre to better serve its client base of about 70 000 individual and business clients, with the contact centre divided into account and billing queries, technical support and advanced technical support for expert users, said iBurst execu- tive customer care manager Navin Chetty.

Customers could also use the company’s Web portal to migrate their accounts, check their accounts and interact with the company.

“We are repositioning because we did not move with the market, were not aggressive with our offerings and we were focused only on data. Now we are aggressively marketing data and voice services over our stable network,” said Turnbull.

The company was rolling out more fibre-optic cables to increase its network size, but he declined to comment on the amount to be spent on infrastructure.

Turnbull also mentioned that iBurst was seriously considering the potential of LTE and rolling out such a service but had not placed a timeframe on such a move. It was engaging with a number of suitor companies around this topic.

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