Tuesday August 4, 2009
Pay less for your phone calls
COST-SAVER: Tan (left) and Edgecomms Sdn Bhd product and technology director David Ng showing off the company’s solution to help SMEs save a bundle on telephone bills. BUSINESSES hoping to save a bundle on their phone bills can give a technology developed by Edgecomms Sdn Bhd a try.
The solution, called Fixed Wireless Service (FWS), is able to extend the number of phone lines a company needs using wireless technology.
Priding itself as the second nationwide fixed-service provider (after Telekom Malaysia), Edgecomms believes its product will go down well with SMEs (small- and medium-scale enterprises) having tight purse strings.
“One of the reasons why SMEs are relunctant to adopt ICT (information and communications technology) is because they are afraid that they won’t get a good return on their investment,” said Tan Aik Boon, chief executive officer of Edgecomms.
FWS, he said, doesn’t require additional investments from an SME. Aside from paying a flat rate of 14sen for each call made nationwide, SMEs do not need to fork out any other payment, such as deposits, rental fees or charges for itemised billing.
Tan said SMEs using the service will be able to save up 50% on fixed-line rental and more than 20% on call charges.
Over the air
FWS utilises GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) wireless technology to offer businesses competitively-priced voice services.
So instead of having just one fixed line provider, a company can leverage on two providers to make calls.
The FWS infrastructure sits with a standard PABX (private automatic branch exchange) setup within a company’s telephone system.
When the company wants more phone lines it can simply connect the FWS box to ports on the PABX. This, Tan said, can save companies the cost and hassle of renting additional fixed-line telephone connections.
The system is also smart enough to route calls through the default service-provider or Edgecomms, whichever offers the lowest cost. “At the end of the day, the customer gets the best deal,” Tan added. — JO TIMBUONG
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