TelePassport saves thousands in phone costs

(Namibian Economist)

Windhoek - A new communications technology has been launched in Namibia under which is estimated to cut companies' telephone costs by up to 30%. The technology called GSM Least Cost Routing (LCR) was launched by the South African-based company TelePassport. Speaking at the launch of the company on Wednesday, managing director Phillip Stier said that TelePassport's Fixed Cellular Least Cost Routing technology reduces communication costs by routing local cellular-bound voice calls directly into MTC's GSM cellular network.

This means converting switchboards to route mobile calls into mobile to mobile calls, thereby reducing the cost of telephone bills as mobile to mobile calls are much cheaper than switchboard to mobile calls. Stier said cellphone calls are rapidly becoming the single biggest communications expense in Southern Africa.

To achieve communication savings through TelePassport's LCR solution, a fixed Cellular Terminal (FCT) with SIM card is connected to the customer's “switchboard” or PABX by the PABX vendor. Stier said TelePassport has established a joint working agreement with a number of leading telecoms suppliers including Bytes Technologies, Siemens and Telkom-Ericsson.

LCR has been standard practice in many parts of the world since the early nineties. In Southern Africa, TelePassport has been in the international LCR market since 1993 and at the cellular LCR field, which first emerged in South Africa in 1997. Stier said TelePassport Namibia is BEE compliant and a truly Namibian company with majority local shareholding. “We have also applied for Team Namibia membership,” said Stier.