Nigerian ISP Tizeti has launched an unlimited voice service app dubbed WifiCall.ng to allow both individuals and businesses to make and receive unlimited voice calls to anywhere in the world.
WifiCall.ng will be rolled out for Nigerian mobile phone numbers anywhere in the world in a move expected to reduce calling costs for businesses by 30-50%, with monthly subscriptions starting from N6,000 [$16.67] a month.
According to Kendall Ananyi, CEO and Co-Founder of Tizeti, “Our goal continues to be to reduce the cost of data and accelerate the rate of connectivity across the continent – this is a first step in continuing to bridge the digital divide that exists. We are excited to continue pushing boundaries in ICT infrastructure and maintain our competitive edge by offering quality and unlimited data service”.
Unlike WhatsApp, which only works on WhatsApp to WhatsApp calls, WifiCall subscribers can call any phone number in the world, using their data package via iOS or Android phones. For businesses WifiCall allows ease of a variety of client services and internal communications.
Businesses will have access to a customisable dashboard, calling statistics, personalised digital receptionist, phone number search, a multi-user sub-account management with ability to top up online and allocate call credits to users among others.
Users can also place calls directly from Twitter by tweeting phone numbers to @wificallng while on the social network, a feature developed with SMEs in mind, so they can provide seamless customer service.
Developers will have access to the API suite within the platform, to tailor product-based solutions for businesses.
According to the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), affordable internet is defined as 1GB of data costing no more than 2% of monthly income. Based on the current estimated national minimum wage in Nigeria of N30,000 [approximately $83.33] per month, the current average rate for 1GB of data at N1,000 [approximately $2.78] is significantly higher than the prescribed N600 [$1.67].
Ifeanyi Okonkwo, Tizeti’s Chief Operations Officer adds, “Tizeti has developed a system that meets the needs of a wide selection of Nigerians. Whether it’s a household with a handful of users or a business who wants to setup a fully-fledged call centre solution, they can all do this in minutes at a fraction of the cost. Previously, setting up a voice service of any size was only available to mega businesses and multi-tenant estates and it would take months to develop and required significant CAPEX to deploy. WifiCall.ng has created a viable solution for Nigerians, further expanding our extensive reach nationwide”.
Tizeti operates widely as a “Comcast for Africa” and builds and operates solar-powered towers in Nigeria, while also providing residences and businesses with unlimited high speed broadband internet; covering over 90% of Lagos to date.
Tizeti graduated from Y Combinator’s Winter 2017 batch and has installed over 12,000 public Wifi hotspots within Nigeria with 500,000 users and partnered with Facebook to offer Express Wi-Fi. The firm operates in Ghana as Wifi.Africa.
