Category: News

October 2019, Johannesburg: Even though the Fourth Industrial Revolution has been a focal point in recent months, less than 2% of South African rural households can access the internet from home. Clearly there is work to be done if more people are going to be part of the connected economy.

This is a challenge that integrated ICT and infrastructure provider Vox has taken to heart. While initially targeting coffee shops, restaurants, and other small service businesses when it was introduced earlier this year, the Vox WiFi Retail Lite solution has the potential to disrupt the way internet access is provided to farming communities.

Designed to empower farmers with an affordable way of giving their workers access to reliable high-speed internet, it all but eliminates the reliance on GSM services beset by poor reception and high mobile voice and data rates.

“Up to now, farm workers have had to pay exorbitant prices for entry-level voice and data packages. To make matters worse, connectivity in outlying areas often results in dropped calls, slow internet speeds, and an inability to stay in touch with their loved ones,” says Jacques Visser, head of wireless at Vox.

Rural workers who have children living in school hostels and family members working far away deserve a better way of communicating with them. Satellite connectivity is the cornerstone on which the Vox offering is built, doing away with the need for traditional cell signal. Furthermore, Vox has structured the WiFi Retail Lite offering to be affordable while still delivering a world-class service to farming communities across the country.

“We are giving farmers the opportunity to create a WiFi network for their workers where they can make free voice calls to any South African number and access the internet. Given how technology has evolved, satellite services have become far more competitive when compared against other forms of fixed, fixed-wireless, or wireless solutions. This makes it an ideal replacement for ADSL,” he says.

This sees farmers having a dedicated voice channel for themselves and allocate another one for their workers. And its user-friendly dashboard means viewing data usage is a swipe of a finger away.

“Vox is providing farm communities with an alternative and reliable way of becoming connected. For too long, farmers and their workers have had to wait at the back of the line when it comes to high-speed internet access. We are changing this and giving them the means to finally join the digital age in a more affordable way than before,” he concludes.

August 2019, Johannesburg: Integrated ICT and Infrastructure provider Vox has entered into an exclusive partnership with Go Rentals to introduce a Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) offering, which is aimed at providing local small and medium businesses (SMEs) with quick, affordable, and scalable access to a wide variety of IT infrastructure – as well as the management thereof.

“Despite an increasingly competitive business environment where every rand counts, many business owners are still buying technology-based equipment outright rather than renting it. The problem with this is that the modern device arena has grown in variety and complexity, making it more difficult to manage, and to reduce the overheads of controlling these devices,” says Barry Kemp, Head of Managed IT at Vox.

According to Kemp, there is a global trend being observed in businesses moving away from owning and managing IT infrastructure. This started with the move away from servers and toward cloud-based subscription services, and now organisations are looking to do the same with the remaining on-premise hardware – employees’ desktop systems.

The availability of HaaS changes the way in which local businesses consume IT, by allowing them to direct valuable capital expenditure toward the more efficient and competitive operation of their organisation, rather than spending on hardware products.

“The rental costs are up to 50% lower than if they buy these products through traditional asset financing methods. Furthermore, using HaaS gives businesses the ability to scale up and down depending on their infrastructure requirements. Customers on a 12 month contract can return up to 10% of the devices rented, while those customers on 24 and 36 month contracts can return up to 20% of the devices – at any time during the contract,” adds Kemp.

More than just a rental

HaaS gives business access to repurposed Tier 1 hardware from vendors such as Dell, HP and Lenovo, equipped with the required specifications (processor, memory, and storage), and come installed with the latest Microsoft Windows operating system, unless an older version is specifically requested by the customer.

“Where HaaS is different from simply renting IT hardware is that businesses get full asset lifecycle management, such as having all company software pre-installed, flexible refresh cycles and upgrades, support and warranty management and transparent and predictable per user monthly fees,” says Kemp.

The ability to upgrade during the contract period means that businesses can keep pace with the latest in technology without needing to invest on depreciating equipment, while ensuring maximum productivity and efficiency for employees. Returned devices are put through a decommissioning process that ensures anonymity, certified data protection, and environmental compliance.

Businesses further stand to benefit from Vox Care, which incorporates asset management and logistical services for customers. This includes initial delivery and setup in major centres, asset tagging of all rented items, creation, and the repair and/or replacement of faulty machines within three business days – again in the main metropolitan areas.

Vox Care also assists in the design, testing and deployment of custom images, whereby HaaS clients can have the additional programmes they need (security, productivity tools, business software, etc) easily pre-installed along with the Windows operating system, on all their machines.

Kemp adds that HaaS customers can get further peace of mind by outsourcing the day to day management of their desktop environment to Vox Managed Services, as well as leverage the company’s knowledge and expertise to manage and host workstation backups to ensure business continuity.

“Hardware-as-a-Service allows businesses to reduce the total cost of ownership of their hardware and ensure they only pay for what they use. Making the switch to a service model helps them take advantage of the global move in this direction, and to turn their business into a highly functional, flexible, low cost, change your mind whenever you want workplace,” concludes Kemp.

October 2019, Johannesburg: Integrated ICT and infrastructure provider Vox has announced the launch of a double data promotion for contract subscribers of its YahClick satellite services, bringing prices and speed comparable to that of terrestrial wireless alternatives.

“Last year, Vox upgraded thousands of subscribers to plans with much higher throughput at no additional cost, bringing the speeds available through ka-band satellite closer to what is available through terrestrial services. This year, we are rewarding our contract customers with double the data at the same price,” says Jacques Visser, Head of Wireless at Vox.

With the exception of a handful of customers, Visser says that most of the YahClick contract customers will qualify for this promotion. YahClick customers whose existing contracts expired, or will expire, will qualify for double their data at the same price they pay at present, on the condition that they opt into a 12-month agreement.

The loyalty promotion will also be available to YahClick non-contract customers who have used the service for more than 11 months, and are willing to take up the same 12-month promotional plan. No on-site technical support or change in consumer premise equipment (CPE) is required for customers taking advantage of the offer.

Additionally, Vox will give customers of the promotional plan access to their Uncapped Voice Service for R172 per month including VAT, allowing subscribers with a dedicated voice channel the ability to make an unlimited number of voice calls to any number in South Africa.

“Satellite internet subscribers, usually based in underserviced or unserviced areas, have long suffered from a lack of choice. This promotional plan is a quantum leap forward for these customers, by providing them with connectivity at speeds and prices similar to that of alternative services such as wireless,” he says.

Visser adds that this is the first phase of the satellite strategy from Vox and their Abu Dhabi based partner, YahSat, to position satellite as a competitive data and voice solution for both individuals and businesses in underserviced areas.

“High throughput satellite services will continue to redefine their role in terms of broadband connectivity in the telecoms market, and we are already seeing a growing trend of combining these services with SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Networking) product offerings to ensure high uptime availability for mission-critical services,” says Visser.

6 August 2019, Johannesburg: With the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) market expected to exceed $76 billion by 2022, local companies are investigating how best to embrace this shift as they migrate to the cloud. To this end, integrated ICT and infrastructure provider, Vox has unveiled its IaaS Monitoring solution to help simplify the transition.

“Traditionally, IaaS offerings provide customers with the platform to run their services. However, when it came to taking care of their servers and systems, they had to do it themselves. And while this provided them with complete control over their own implementations, inevitably the ongoing maintenance became problematic,” says Barry Kemp, head of managed IT at Vox.

Given the growth of the cloud in recent years and the arrival of multi-national data centres in the country, more businesses started moving services to an online environment. Unfortunately, many decision-makers incorrectly assumed that because their data is hosted in the cloud, it would be safe.

“Even though the cloud environment is secure, a shared responsibility approach has to be applied. Depending on the cloud service model used, the client still needs to take responsibility for the security of its own servers. It is in this space where our offering comes into its own,” says Kemp.

The Vox IaaS Monitoring solution comes in two versions – monitoring, and monitoring with patch management.
The former sees Vox monitoring things such as CPU, memory usage, and patch status of client servers. It then sends a notification to the customer if an alert is triggered or when a new patch becomes available for installation. And as the name suggests, the latter sees Vox install the patch on behalf of the customer.

“Even though many customers have their own internal IT resources, they are often focused on other strategic activities with patch management falling by the wayside. With the Vox solution, they can continue delivering on their business objectives with us taking care of the onerous patching work and other server monitoring functions as it impacts their IaaS solutions,” he concludes.

November 2019, Johannesburg: Integrated ICT and infrastructure provider, Vox has launched highly attractive uncapped data and voice satellite service plans at a price point that competes with LTE-A. As part of its YahClick satellite service, these plans aim to provide cost-effective connectivity to under-serviced regions in South Africa.

“Satellite is still a viable solution in South Africa, even though an often forgotten form of broadband services. Rural communities, and the agricultural sector specifically, rely on satellite services where reliable and high speed fixed or wireless internet is not always available.The new plans will provide these regions and customers with high throughput, at more affordable pricing that competes directly with LTE-A prices,” says Jacques Visser, head of wireless at Vox.

The newly launched unlimited plans sees Ka-band satellite going uncapped for data and voice with prices that not only benefit individuals, but also enables businesses to use satellite for their software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN). These plans are available in 5Mbps, 10Mbps and 20Mbps options and include a data-only and a premium data and voice service.

“We want to reward our customers and with the YahClick satellite service we can offer improved frequency in regions that require better service. We are excited to launch these plans to our customers, pushing data pricing down to as low as R5 per GB,” says Visser.

The premium voice and data service is optimised for voice purposes while the uncapped voice-only plan bolts onto the satellite broadband plan and includes unlimited voice calls to all South African numbers.

YahClick uses Ka-band satellites to provide a wide range of users across the country with reliable, high-speed internet connectivity. Using multi-spot beams as opposed to broadcasting over the continent, allows for far more efficient use of the available bandwidth and at lower costs than traditional satellite technology. The new plans are provisioned over the AY3 High Throughput Satellite (HTS).

“Satellite is a reliable temporary service until fixed or wireless coverage is extended into the area,” says Visser.

Uncapped data only plans through YahClick start from R1 099 per month for 5Mbps, R1 449 per month for 10Mbps and R1 999 per month for 20Mbps as part of a 12 month contract. Premium data and voice plans start from R1 150 per month for 5Mbps with one voice channel, R1 549 per month for 10Mbps with two voice channels and R2 249 per month for 20Mbps with four voice channels as part of a 12 month contract. The uncapped voice channel is R172 per month. Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) starts at R4 800 or on rental from R240 per month. Installation of 24 months contracts as well as installation of the 20Mbps in all configurations are free.

November 2019, Johannesburg: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa now have access to a cost effective business email solution, that delivers email and collaboration, with the introduction of Vox Cloud Email.

“Whilst there are many business email platforms on the market that offer enhanced functionality such as chat and collaboration, these are priced out of the reach of most SME’s,” says Mayleen Bywater, Senior Product Manager for Email at Vox.

According to Bywater, the product is similar to leading email products on the market, but is based on open source technology, making it far more affordable. While it can be used by businesses of all sizes, the key target market is companies in the SME segment with between 1 and 100 employees.

“Customers are charged per user, based on the highest number of active mailboxes over the period of a month, giving them the flexibility to scale up or down. This gives them a cost saving without having to compromise on the quality of their email environment,” says Bywater.

Vox Cloud Email provides customers with several familiar features including being able to create global address lists, set tasks, share calendar invites, tag others in conversations, and even includes a feature which allows users to store documents and files in the cloud, and share them with friends, colleagues, suppliers etc. The service is available through a full-featured web client, and is easily accessible through smartphones and tablets.

Vox also offers complementary products for companies that require enhanced functionality. Customers that require advanced security have access to an additional plug in, whilst those concerned about data loss can subscribe to an unlimited email archiving solution. Subscription costs are based on the mailbox sizes, with between 10GB , 20GB and 50GB per user options available. In addition, customers can easily upgrade and downgrade between packages.