Expatriates Forums in South Africa

umngane · Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:30 am Post subject: Telecoms costs in South Africa

Skype is now the world's largest telco (by number of subscribers) worldwide. One can now also call from Skype to mobile and landline numbers in destination countries, but at a cost. One has to register, then load funds into your Skype account.

Another alternative is to use international calling cards - in SA there are 2 types.
1. Worldcall (owned by Telkom), which works from Telkom phones
2. Various for calling from mobile phones (e.g. Sundial, Globel)

Then there are gateways for mobile phones where there is no registration or prepaid calling card. One pays whatever you would had you called a Telkom landline (if you have "free" minutes on your contract those are deducted first). E.g. Celldial, Callall

lobin · Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:53 am Post subject:

i want to say hello here

lobin · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 6:36 am Post subject:

me too

spider123 · Gender: Joined: 06 Jan 2012 Posts: 8 Home Country: NULL

Telecommunications is one of the fastest growing sectors of South Africa's economy, driven by rapid growth in mobile telephony and broadband connectivity.With a network that is 99.9% digital and includes the latest in fixed-line, wireless and satellite communication, the country has the most developed telecoms network in Africa.
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business for sale

michaelbb · Gender: Joined: 03 Feb 2012 Posts: 2 Home Country: uk

As far as I am aware, it was a government inititive in 2004 to make telecome costs cheaper and regulate competition in order to boost business in SA, which had been inhibited by the huge telecoms costs. However I think they are much higher than compared to other countries.

I use skype and worldcall and find them the most effective, but actually the landline network is 99% of the time fine and not overly expensive.