Next Friday’s ConvergeSA conference, taking place at the Bytes Conference Centre in Midrand and for which TechCentral is media partner, will discuss the idea of zero-cost calling in South Africa.

“Zero-cost calling will become a reality and is already available through international voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) on-net services such as Skype and Viber,” explains Mark Slingsby, technical director at RSAWeb.

“Locally, zero-cost calling is not far off as many VoIP providers provide free on-net calls and, as interconnect costs tumble, call costs will get low enough that operators will build the cost of free calling into data bundles.”

Others, however, do not agree. “The fantasy of zero-cost calls is, unfortunately, nothing more than an illusion,” says Saicom director Howard Sackstein. “Someone still has to pay for the costs of infrastructure and switching.”

Zero-costing calling is one of several topics expected to be tackled at the 15 August conference, which will bring together industry leaders in South Africa’s converged communications space.

Delegates attending the event will hear from top industry players about the regulatory environment and gain insights into what technology developments can be expected in the years to come.

Speakers in this year’s line-up include Neotel chief technology officer Angus Hay and Internet Service Providers’ Association regulatory advisor Dominic Cull. To see the complete speaker line-up, or to register for the event, visit ConvergeSA’s website. — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media