VIENNA -- The Telekom Austria Group has launched a new product that focuses on globally operating discount voice carriers. This offer enables smaller international carriers that look for better interconnection options to take advantage of Telekom Austria Group’s direct network connections. No setup fees are charged for single voice calls. Carriers are usually specialised on particular (ethnic) target groups and offer their customers particularly low tariffs. These contract partners of the Telekom Austria Group purchase high volumes of call minutes and redistribute them to their end-customers, for instance, via prepaid cards.

“For the first time, we are offering our wholesale customers access to our worldwide network of interconnection partners within the framework of a prepaid solution. As opposed to our competitors, we offer both technologies: VoIP and TDM. We can therefore better leverage the existing potential in the wholesale area," said Stefan Amon, Head of Wholesale at the Telekom Austria Group, explaining the reasons behind this tariff innovation. TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) is the traditional transmission method for telephone calls, whereas VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a transmission technology based on the Internet protocol. Both the technological solution and the type of connection are geared to concrete customer needs.

Advantages for Wholesale Customers
This voice prepayment solution offers a quick and simple connection to the Telekom Austria Group’s billing platform. Since there is no minimum purchase volume, or minimum purchase requirement, carriers can buy voice minutes in small amounts. Once payment has been made, carriers can immediately resell the purchased voice minutes, making them available to their subscribers straight away.

This voice prepayment solution, specially developed by the Telekom Austria Group, offers wholesale customers a wide range of features that considerably facilitate their work: carriers receive, for instance, a daily status report by email to check their voice minute balance, i.e. the amount used and remaining voice minutes. This update takes place on a daily per-second basis. In addition, carriers receive two threshold alerts when they are about to use up their minute allotments in order to prevent unwanted service deactivation if they exceed their credit limit. By paying the due amount, they can top up their credit straight away.

Telekom Austria AG (NYSE: TKA; Vienna: TKA)