As we enter a new decade, many new telephone technologies are sure to emerge, while many of the less successful ones will fade into obscurity. But sometimes companies elect to voluntarily retire old classics, to the dismay of many fans set in their ways.

Take South African communications giant Telkom. You may have heard that it’s discontinuing some fixed-line copper services, with plans to switch customers over to fibre and wireless alternatives.

Now, we agree this decision makes sense to a degree, as the copper network is ageing infrastructure with a limited lifespan and is prone to faults. Copper cables are continuously being stolen and have limited bandwidth, ultimately making them less and less feasible as a business for Telkom.

So, Telkom has marked your beloved service as “to be discontinued”. Now what?

Well, the natural progression is often to consider voice over IP (VoIP), which requires an Internet connection, usually provided over fibre or wireless. Simple enough, right?

Not necessarily. (Read our article about the pitfalls of VoIP here.) The truth is that the copper-free life isn’t all sunshine and fast connections. In fact, many Telkom customers have ended up with their connectivity being cut off completely as no LTE or fibre was available in the area to move over to — an issue particularly relevant in remote and rural areas.

The new connectivity protocol problem isn’t limited to landlines and ADSL. Legacy technology like fax machines and alarm systems are also affected, and worse so because they usually need an analogue port connection, and this is an expensive and cumbersome add-on in a VoIP system.

The impact of this is enormous on thousands of small to medium-sized businesses where these technologies are often critical services. But with Huge Telecom, you don’t need to just sit back and let this happen.

The good news: There is a better way

There is a light at the end of the copper tunnel. You don’t have to settle for Telkom’s new service offering, or any other VoIP-based offer, because there is a simpler, cheaper and more stable solution that has been available in South Africa since 1993!

GSM: A great system to migrate to

The Global System for Mobile, or GSM as most people know it, is a digital cellular technology used to transmit mobile voice and data services. It digitises and compresses data and is used to drive 2G connectivity in mobile phones. More importantly, it secures the data communication, to a globally prescribed, regulated, controlled and near-unbreakable level of encryption. It is generally accepted to be the global standard for mobile communications, so much so that it’s responsible for over 99% of South Africa’s wireless coverage.

Despite not being as flashy as some of the newer tech, GSM delivers consistent, high-quality, high-security connections — very unlike the notoriously fickle VoIP. And when it comes to a GSM partner, you simply can’t do better than Huge Telecom right now. Huge Telecom, part of JSE-listed Huge Group, has quietly and consistently been leading the GSM cellular revolution in South Africa, keeping customers reliably connected for over two decades.

Huge Telecom currently offers a ground-breaking Full-Suite Telephony (FST) service, an excellent alternative to VoIP that allows you and your business to make inbound and outbound calls using GSM technology. In fact, FST offers all the benefits of the copper landlines and more — without any of the hassles.

Huge Telecom’s FST allows corporate enterprises and SMEs to do the following:

Keep their existing phone numbers;
Run their businesses with multiple lines including a hunting facility;
Receive calls from and make calls to any network;
Make use of proven first-tier GSM technology over mobile networks that are hardly ever down;
Enjoy controlled and guaranteed connection quality; and
Enjoy significant cost savings over a traditional landline solution.

Don’t delay — migrate today

Sure, your connection might still be working now. But Telkom is rapidly phasing out copper landlines as you’re reading this. Why not secure your connection and switch to a GSM solution today?

If you want consistent and guaranteed voice channels with call quality that doesn’t fade as your business grows, sign up for GSM FST with Huge Telecom. It’s faster, more secure and more reliable! And it is, quite simply, the best solution to the vanishing Telkom copper network.