Zim: First VoIP service launched

In an announcement issued on Thursday, 10 September 2010, Telco said it had successfully commissioned its VoIP telephone exchange and entered into an interconnection agreement with fixed line telecommunications operator, TelOne.

Other licensed VoIP providers

All of Telco's Harare and Bulawayo offices are now reachable on 11-digit VoIP numbers, Telco's announcement said.
Other licensed VoIP service providers who have already been allocated dial-up numbers are Africom, Aquiva Wireless, Aptics Trading, BlueSat Access, Dandemutande, PowerTel Communications, Taurai Zimbabwe and Valley Technology.

PowerTel Communications, spun out of power utility ZESA to exploit a vast network of fibre optic cables around the country, has also indicated that it will soon unveil plans for voice services through the VoIP platform.

ADSL speed

Telco said it was issuing clients on the Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) broadband platform free VoIP numbers "to call anywhere in the world at the cost of a local call".

The company said its ADSL broadband was 10 times faster than the UHF internet, four times faster than Wi Max and a quarter of the price of UHF and Wi Max solutions.

ADSL is data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide.

"It's real broadband access at 256kb up to 8mb," said the company.