I’m amazed to see some websites hint to suggest that iCTel might be a scam without providing any reason or facts…I’ve decided done a bit of thorough investigative reporting. None of the other websites (including moneyweb, imod or mydigital life) can say the same.
With all disruptive technologies there will always be a certain amount of scepticism to new ideas and technology, especially in the case of South Africa where it’s telecommunication services has been miss-managed by the government for so long.
The main concerns initially were:
1) What is ictel’s physical address :This has been visible on their website for a long time : www.ictel.co.za/11405
2) How can their prices be so low compared to Telkom and normal Cell phone rates?
iCTel uses technology called Voice-over-IP (similar to what products like Skype use) but go further by allowing you to call landlines and cellphones from your computer, or even call computers and ictel members from your cellphone for a fraction of the traditional price using their pre-configured software downloaded via SMS to your cellphone.
3) If it is just a service, why is so many people advertising it as a business opportunity?
Well, although it is just a nice telecom service which allows you to call for cheap (even internationally) to landlines and celllphones, or for free to other ictel members on their mobiles or on their computers, many people have become very excited to share it with their friends because ictel will PAY you simply to use the service and tell your friends about it.
If you are not interrested in making extra money, don’t worry, it is not compulsory to advertise the service. You can simply just use the service without ever having to tell anyone about it.
If however you would like to suppliment your income or just get all the ictel services for free you can tell friends, family or colleages and you will get discount for everyone that uses it and buys additional airtime, and possibly make quite a bit of extra money if you seriously advertise it.
For the real entrepreneur iCTel offers additional business opportunites which will require more of a commitment but will provide higher income. Some of these opportunities require technical installers of Wireless internet spots, Business premises owners and some more.
4) Why did they take so long to launch?
As a matter of fact iCTel only launched one and a half month later than initially advertised. As part of their pre-launch advertising campaign they allowed people to tell their contacts that something good is coming and to potentially earn some extra money when the commercial service launched.
It seems that iCTel refined its focus a few months after the launch and the massive amount of registrations to focus on the mobile phone software client, which is now available via SMS.
register for free and then click on products-> icCoip to get instructions on how to quickly download the software to your phone to start saving.
I believe iCTel could have done a better job at communicating with their clients to keep them up to date with all the nice developments, but I’m sure they will soon send out somehting that will blow everyone’s mind!
Watch this space.