'Telecel Business to reduce phone bills by 80%'

Published: 30 October 2013

Telecel today (Wednesday) announced the introduction of a special product for businesses and other organisations, Telecel Business, which it estimates could reduce their phone bills by as much as 80 percent.

Telecel Business is similar to Telecel Red, in that it is subscription based and offers subscribers usage of up to five times the amount of the subscription. However, Telecel Business is for businesses and other organisations, while Telecel Red is for individuals.

Addressing a Press conference in Harare, Telecel Zimbabwe marketing director Octivius Kahiya said a major difference was that with Telecel Business it was the entity that held the account and paid subscriptions for various packages for employees.

There are four Telecel Business package options, Telecel Business 15, the monthly subscription for which, including Value Added Tax, is $17,25, Telecel Business 30, the subscription for which is $34,50, Telecel Business 60 (subscription $69) and Telecel Business 150 (subscription $172,50).

A major feature of Telecel Business is the Closed User Group (CUG) concept, which allows calls between Telecel numbers of members of an organisation to be made virtually for free. In this way the Telecel numbers of members of staff become similar to extensions that can be called for free.

Telecel Business users are entitled to a certain number of minutes each month for conversations with members of the CUG, a certain number of minutes for calls to other Telecel customers and a certain number of minutes to non-Telecel local numbers, as well as a certain amount of free data and local text messages.

The number of minutes call time allowed per month for each category of calls, namely calls to the closed group, to other numbers on the Telecel network and calls to other networks, varies according to the category and the value of the package, as do the amount of data and free text messages.

With the Telecel Business 60 and Telecel Business 150 packagess there is also an allowance for international calls.

Business 15 users are allowed each month 450 minutes of CUG talk time, 60 minutes of on-net calls, which means calls to other Telecel numbers, and 30 minutes of off-net calls, as well as 15MB of free data and 15 local text messages.

Business 30 gives customers up to 900 minutes of talk time on CUG calls, 180 minutes for on-net calls, and 60 minutes for off-net calls, as well as 100MB of free data and 100 local text messages.

The Business 60 plan gives the user 1 800 minutes talk time on CUG, 480 minutes for on-net calls, 180 minutes for off-net calls, 200MB of free data and 200 local text messages. In addition, Business 60 comes with 30 minutes for international calls.

The Business 150 plan gives the user 3 000 minutes on CUG, 1 000 minutes for on-net calls, 1 000 minutes for off-net calls, 1 000MB of free data and 1 000 free local text messages. In addition it gives the user 100 minutes for international outgoing phone calls.

Mr Kahiya explained that perhaps within an organisation a driver might be given the Telecel Business 15 package, allowing him 450 minutes of calls per month to other people within the organisation's CUG, while some senior management members might have the Telecel Business 150 package, giving them up to 3 000 minutes of calls to staff members per month.

"In effect, he said, calls within an organisation are virtually free."

"Our focus at Telecel is on our customers. We want our customers to focus on their business, while we take care of their communication needs," he said.

He said Telecel Business provided businesses with a quick way of cutting down on costs.

"We really do care for our customers," he said.

He said Telecel Business users could retain their existing Telecel numbers. Customers from other networks could be given a number with the last six digits the same as those of their existing number.

Speaking at the same occasion, Telecel Zimbabwe chief commercial officer Ashraf Elguindy said Telecel was known for offering best value for money in the Zimbabwean market. It was committed to facilitating talk between customers.

He recalled how in 2010 Telecel had made operating a mobile phone more affordable and gone on to provide airtime cards with 100 percent bonus airtime. In 2013 it had extended bonus airtime use so that it could be used to call any network.

In August it had offered cheaper calls still by offering Super Voice Bundles. Some had thought Telecel would not be able to sustain such bargains but it had done so.

"We have a very robust network," he said, adding that Telecel had doubled its network capacity and range.

"Every day we roll out more sites," he said., adding that all these sites were data enabled.

"We have one of the fastest, if not the fastest, download speed among mobile networks," he said.

He pointed out that Telecel had opened nine new shops, including a shop at its 202 Seke Road offices, Joina City, Westgate, Sam Levy's Village, Machipisa, Bindura and Beitbridge.

Mr Katiya pointed out that Telecel Red and Telecel Business were products, not promotions, and were therefore permanent features of what Telecel was offering subscribers.

- Consultants

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