Euphoria Telecom has announced that it has partnered with South African Broadband Education Networks (SABEN) to offer affordable VoIP to South African Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and students.
SABEN is an initiative tasked to solve bandwidth poverty at South Africa’s TVET colleges by working with these institutions to procure self-funded internet connectivity. Through SABEN, colleges will now receive internet and data networking services from SANReN and TENET. SABEN currently caters for 17 of the 50 TVET colleges in South Africa with approximately half a million enrolled students.
Euphoria Telecom CEO George Golding says the TVET system is a key contributor to the overall success of South Africa’s labour market and its future economic growth. “Euphoria Telecom gives 25 percent off on service fees and a significant reduction in call rates for registered educational and NGO entities.”
“For the education sector, reliable internet means access to information for both teachers and students. Both groups, who may not have access to educational materials at home or off-campus, can tap into unlimited resources for training and development purposes,” he explains.
SABEN managing director Arno Hart says education is about today’s youth and their contributions to the economic growth of the country. “This partnership is another catalyst, like connectivity, to enabling social development within the public education sector. The benefits of Euphoria’s service extend well beyond financial gain.”
This partnership gives TVET colleges access to a cloud PBX solution, without the costs of onsite, traditional business PBX services. The Euphoria network offers free calling for anyone on the network. By extending a residential service called Fresh Phone to students as well, TVET colleges can remain in contact with their students, at no additional cost.
“Student finance departments typically want to keep daily contact with their students and with Euphoria’s service, these calls become zero rated, saving TVET colleges’ daily calling costs,” Golding concludes.
