Newly-formed local telecoms company, DualDial (part of CS Communications), says that it is giving home users and small offices the opportunity to benefit from least cost routing (LCR), without the need to invest in masses of technology.

The company, which boasts strategic alliances with the likes of Tellumat, Definity Telecom, Siyathetha Transact, Globel and Emmanuel"s, last week launched what it hopes will give Telkom landline subscribers access to savings up to 40 percent on GSM calls, 70 percent on SMSs and 70 percent on international calls.

DualDial"s ?Fone" uses a combination GSM, PSTN handset to determine what the lowest tariff will be for a specific call made at any point in time. Then, using the Telkom, GSM and (later) VoIP networks, the call will be routed to its destination via the channel that incurs the lowest cost.

Currently, LCR offerings are well entrenched in the market, but the company believes that its own way of routing calls - called Automatic Low Cost Route Selection (ALCSR) - will bring many cost savings to consumers.

"Think of it as any time off-peak," says Charlie Smith, CEO of DuoDial. "Icasa has approved the use of this technology and we have rolled out our sales and support network, ready to do business."

At Rand 785 (US$128) per month (including handset), the new solution is targeted at the small office, home office and upper LSM market. Users will still be expected to pay Telkom line rental on top of the DuoDial contract subscription. Potential users will need to carefully evaluate whether their current bill is large enough to justify forking out close to R800 before they begin realizing savings.

DuoDial is also rolling out a GPRS-enabled point of sale (POS) device (similar to a SpeedPoint), aimed at businesses needing wireless credit/debit card POS facilities.

And, according to Smith, a DuoDial Fone with a VoIP option will also be available as soon as quality of service (QoS) issues on the IP network have been ironed out. This, the company has stated, could be in early 2006.

According to CS Communications, it is currently in the process of appointing additional licensed product distributors for the DualDial Fone and POS. SA has been divided into 27 regions with two licence holders per region, of which 24 licences have been sold already.

At present, around 20 percent of licence owners are BEE companies, but CS Communications says that it is considering either bringing on a serious BEE partner, or allocating a number of licences to BEE companies that will be shadowed by CS Communications management. While this is claimed to be the first product of its kind in SA, no doubt competitors will begin emerging.

Also, with the no-show of the SNO, and the lack of cost-saving technologies at home- and SoHo-level, Telkom is slowly tightening its already firm grip on the local telecoms monopoly, and the need to drive down SA"s already high telecoms costs is reaching a critical level.