TelePassport leads communication market

"We have captured the market to become the market leaders," said Phillip Stier, the managing director for TelePassport Namibia. He says his company offer services to most of the banks and to many of the government ministries and agencies. Cellphone calls have become the single biggest communications expense in southern Africa. And that is where the LCR technology comes in. It is a technology which routes cellular bound voice calls directly into MTC's GSM cellular network.

A Fixed Cellular Terminal (FCT) with SIM card is connected to the customer's "switchboard." This basically converts the office switchboard into a mobile phone, whenever the call is being placed to a mobile phone.

And since mobile-to-mobile calls are cheaper than fixed-to-mobile, the company saves a substantial amount of money on telephone costs. The savings can be as much as 33% per month or per annum. To ensure a hassle free and efficient connection of this technology to custormers, TelePassport has established a joint working agreement with a number of leading PABX suppliers, including Bytes Technology, Siemens and Telkom-Ericsson.

Its service also carries MTC's stamp of approval. Today TelePassport Namibia boasts a strong clientele base numbering 650 corporate companies. Stier says the company managed to achieve such success through its simple motto 'what you see is what you get'. Its black economic empowerment partners have also been very instrumental in making TelePassport a success. "They have done a lot in contributing to the company value, especially on advising as on what is going on in the market, and how better we can do things. Our partners have been, at times, our unofficial consultants," said Stier.

The cherry on top of the cake, however, is the recent announcement by TelePassport that it will reduce its prices by 10 cents on eanch client' existing package. Although it sounds little it is a huge saving in total.

The company also has other services on offer. These include the TexSMS service through which users can send SMSes to mobile phones from desktop or laptops just as sending an e-mail. This is made possible by using Microsoft Outlook.