"Zebra Telecom": plant-eating predator IP-telephony?

Advertise with the image of this cute little animals with a snug-rounded often glimpsed in the subway cars. In the narrow circles of the "Zebra" tease "Hippo-Telecom, but this behemoth nerazvorotlivosti IP-operator can not be reproached.

Zebra grazing in the IP-telephony market for many years and always smartly responded to user requests. Universal Card (Telephony + Internet together and separately), roaming, over-privileged calls Peter Moscow, convenient account management through a Web-based interface, even the collectible card ... All of this - quickly and in the mass market. Service Callback - another interesting initiative, targeted primarily at mobile users.

Excerpts from the press releases:

Zebra Telecom, the market leader in IP-telephony services and one of the leading providers of Internet access, announces the introduction of a call back service (call-back) for long-distance and international telecommunications companies on the cards. The service is designed for owners of mobile phones connected to the tariff plans with free incoming calls from landline telephone numbers.

To access the service, provide a special number (+7095) 789-3734, which differs from the usual access numbers to IP-telephony card company. After dialing this number system callback closes the connection and automatically calls back the mobile phone subscribers by offering to enter PIN-code Zebra Telecom. Thus, for a client call is incoming, and it can in the usual mode fly long-distance communication or other voice services "Zebra Telecom" - an instant reference, the voice portal services dating, etc.

Call back service is available only in Moscow, but it can also benefit customers Zebra Telecom St. Petersburg in Moscow roaming mode.

"The desire to make use of IP-telephony services as convenient and easy for all types of clients - an integral part of our strategy, - says Victor Kaledin, CEO of Zebra Telecom. - Today's mobile communications has become a familiar tool for communicating, in Moscow alone the number of mobile subscribers exceeded the number of residents. Also actively growing stream of incoming calls to mobile numbers in the network "Zebra Telecom". Even today, such challenges are more than 15% of the total number of calls to the card company. That this growth is dictated by the introduction of callback services, allowing our customers to use mobile communications for IP-telephony, excluding the additional costs. "

Our comment:

The system works well. After dialing (+7095) 789-3734 - "Wait, you call back" - a retreat. Note connection time - about two and a half seconds. Ie in the presence of a protective interval five seconds a call for "Zebra" will not be tariffed. Callback (just a couple of seconds) - "Wait, the connection is established." After a couple of long beeps - Zebra Telecom. Enter pin-code of your card. " Note the reliability of the system: when receiving busy signal in response to the call (remote connection), the system immediately follows the call. Works equally well with the federal and direct numbers for all three operators of GSM, as well as MGTS phones.

We can assume that Callback-system "Zebras" is oriented not only to mobile subscribers with free incoming. Outgoing calls to MGTS phones sooner or later (probably sooner) will be paid and then, many operators will begin to implement Callback as "zavlekalochki" for customers. But by the time consumers of IP-telephony will be remembered that the "Zebras" This service is already up and running, but from the good deed goes unpunished.

It is clear that mobile operators Callback service is not happy. Any tariff plan is more or less unbalanced design, allows the subscriber to reduce communication costs within certain limits. For example, a low monthly fee with free incoming calls on the "Accept Private MegaFon partially offset by expensive outgoing, cheap vnutriset for" Jeans-007 MTS - expensive intercourse urban subscribers. Attempts to play on this "rasbalanse and grab your coin with mobile operators actively practiced for over a year ago: any basement telecom firmochki a modest 3.5 cents / minute with the help of callback transformed the city into a very cheap outbound inbound. TA disturbed the delicate balance and the operator was facing a choice: to ignore loss-making groups or deny access from your network to the phone number "firmochek, and sometimes quite reputable companies. Long-distance Callback - a slightly different service, which allows it to cut costs on long distance, rather than seeking to parasitize imbalance tariff. In this incarnation, perhaps, the mobile operators with Callback suck.

Useful and beneficial for us to service you. Let's see what it suffer the same fate in the performance of "Zebra Telecom"