It does this by bringing together carrier-grade telephony, teleconferencing, voicemail and SMS messaging, as well as instant messaging (chat), email services and presence notification services, among others.
With it, unified communication is achieved across a range of products for the mobile smart phone, the PC/laptop and office PBX technologies, thereby creating a single user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.
"With these products you enter the global village where unified communication has become reality,” says Walter Betschel, CEO of the Telfree group. "Everybody can have the convenience of the whole communication range from normal phone-calls to chat, email and instant messaging on FaceBook from one device, without having to switch on and off different programs."
Unlike other internet or VoIP companies that use the open public uncontrolled internet to deliver the call from one end to the other, it only makes use of the public internet from the users' mobile phone or laptop to connect them to its system within the resident country or city. Thereafter, it controls and manages the call in much the same way traditional operators or carriers do, ensuring that it delivers total communication that is faster and better quality than many other VoIP providers.
The 3G or Wi-Fi applications have been specifically developed to cope with a bandwidth starved environment, unlike Skype, which is designed for high bandwidth. It operates on the full range of smart phones, including Nokia, HTC Windows Mobile phones and iPhones but not BlackBerry.
Rapelang Rabana, the group's global head of R&D, and her colleagues in Cape Town and Pretoria continue to ensure that the telecommunications group remains at the forefront of alternative communications.
Further benefits of the system include a unique 087 number that is fully integrated yet portable, so there is no need to change an existing GSM cell phone number. When users are not logged into their account, they can still receive calls, SMS and emails, as the advanced technology recognises what's going on behind the scenes and notifies them to what's happening in the system.
Additionally, it has optimised its mobile service, which uses only half the usual required internet data and therefore saves data costs and uses six times less battery power when the phone is idle. This means a phone will get through an entire day without needing recharge.
To activate data voice calls; threaded SMS; instant messaging and chat on social networks; as well as the sending and receiving of e-mails using push technology (also threaded and key word search optimised), users download the application from the website to a mobile smartphone.
It provides one global flat rate to fixed lines and mobile smart phones and is free between registered user-to-user accounts. Users pay by credit card and in South Africa can purchase UKash vouchers at Pick 'n Pay outlets around the country.
Telfree is a privately-owned group of companies headquartered in Switzerland that has positioned itself to penetrate the 'last growth market' - namely, Africa and other emerging markets - but not to the exclusion of developed markets.
Go to www.telfree.com or send telfree in an SMS to 39642 (SA only).
